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The drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro.
Sequels come in many shapes and sizes and are literally all over the board in terms of quality. In general, however, they still too often miss the mark. Such is emphatically not the case with “Sicario: Day of the Soldado.”
Whereas the original “Sicario” was certainly Emily Blunt’s movie, the follow-up belongs to Academy Award-winner Benicio Del Toro, who carries this film in fine form. Also absent from “Day of the Soldado” is director Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”). Nonetheless, Italian director Stefano Sollima, who previously honed his craft on crime series television, expertly helms this latest addition.
Gone as well is Academy Award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (“Blade Runner 2049”). In his place is the very worthy Dariusz Wolski (“The Martian,” “All the Money in the World”). Though “Soldado” was modestly budgeted at $35 million, every nickel seems to appear onscreen. The stark desert scenes at midday contrast superbly with the blue hues of sunset – both of which reinforce the sense of a lonely land in continual conflict.
Josh Brolin is back as Matt Graver, once again the liaison between high-level policy decisions at the senior-most echelons of government, and the actual dirty work the field requires. In the first “Sicario,” Graver often came off as flippant. While some of Graver’s insouciant coping mechanism remains on display, we learn that even this jaded operative’s deep cynicism has limits.
Standout performances include relative newcomers Isabela Moner and Elijah Rodriguez as children caught up in a landscape polluted by drug cartels. They are prisoners of a world created by criminals and politicians – redundant terms in this movie and perhaps real life as well.
Catherine Keener plays a high-ranking CIA handler whose rise in the agency is obviously a function of her unflinching willingness to carry out policy, no matter how distasteful or ethically questionable. Keener’s ostensibly warm exterior masks an icy core as chilling as her persona in “Get Out.”
The strength of both “Sicario” films is the manner in which the players must navigate between the realities of deeply flawed government policies on the one hand and their personal moral code on the other. Along the journey, uncomfortable choices constantly test the characters.
At the end of the day, this film is Taylor Sheridan’s vehicle. He is amassing an impressive record of accomplishment as a screenwriter (“Sicario, “Hell or High Water”), as well as a writer/director (“Wind River,” “Yellowstone”). The quality of Sheridan’s craft is evidenced by that fact that not a single character in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” utters the kind of movie clichés that continue to populate many films. Perhaps we will see him in the director’s chair for the next sequel.
As might be expected, the film’s ending is as open-ended as the original. In a tale rife with ambiguity of character motivations and political intrigue, tying things up too neatly would be incongruous. “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is the type of smart follow-up that Hollywood should make more often. I look forward to the next installment with great eagerness indeed.
In theaters Friday, June 29th
