Sicario

Sicario flows like the waters of Wisconsin: all sharing a general direction, but multitudinous, under multitudinous influences, winding and pooling at varying rates. Most fiction is more like the mighty Mississippi, fed by many factors but barreling forward with identity, usually in the form of a main character's personal development; Sicario focused on an arbitrary cross section of tributaries.

And I mean arbitrary -- I'm not sure why the writer chose Kate's perspective. She's a secondary character, a protagonist chosen at random. She was our hero, who ended up not being a hero; nor did she become a villain; nor did anyone else take her place. The movie left us heroless. That's okay when the whole point of the thing is moral ambiguity -- for another heroless Josh Brolin movie, see No Country for Old Men -- but this one wasn't satisfying like that one. If I remember right, that one never gave Llewelyn a protagonist's soul; I mean it was shocking when he died, but it wasn't emotionally unsatisfying like Kate never proving her strength or conquering the forces she's up against. If I remember right, NCFOM never set up Llewlyn for that kind of conflict. Anyway, Sicario has this strange ambiguity that doesn't definitively define the movie, yet precludes the movie from any other sort of definition. It's surprising to see Kate so unfulfilled by the end.

Speaking of ambiguity, I hate when characters needlessly, suavely, withhold information from the protagonist. This is so common in movies. It's all over this one. It really brings down the writing. I dislike Josh Brolin altogether here, not just his cocky character, but his cheesy action movie performance. He brings Kate along for the ride and tells her to be a sponge; that's what it's like to watch the movie. It's so confusing, partly because characters chronically conceal info for no reason other than being in a cheesy movie.

Some of the movie was pretty cool. I like the moral ambiguity too, it just missed the delivery, in a way that I'm struggling to communicate. In an effort to be gritty and ambiguous, it ended up unsatisfying.

Not a bad movie though, and I liked some of the artsy shots. I really disliked some of the dialogue.