‘SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO’
RATED: R (for strong violence, bloody images and language) WHEN: Opens today
WHERE: AMC 12, Century Rio 24, Cottonwood, Winrock 16, Starlight Cinema 8, Premiere (Rio Rancho), Regal Santa Fe Stadium 14 (Santa Fe) shirts with medals on their chests to find anyone who enabled the suicide bombers, who crossed into the United States over the Mexican border. Graver’s task is to cause chaos among the cartels, which control the border, making them easier to strike. He hires his best sicario (hit man), Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), and they set out to kidnap Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), the daughter of cartel kingpin Carlos Reyes.
That revenge for Yemeni terrorists lands on heads of Mexican narcos is part of the film’s absurd irony. The terrorists are soon dropped, as the kidnapping plot goes awry and Graver’s mission is spiked. A small coincidence involving border coyotes sets off a series of increasingly ugly events, and both Alejandro and Graver are pushed to the brink. They are cool under fire, and always coldly tactical, but “Day of the Soldado” tests the outer limits of that boundary. They even manage to display some small moments of emotion and trauma.
Sollima’s style is cool and observational, bearing witness to incredible events. Camera movements establish spatial relationships between the characters and the incredible violence around them. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski uses horizontal pans that both follow and anticipate action. The camera observes unobtrusively, and its restraint mimics the emotional restraint of the characters, who go about their dark business with a sense of black, deeply ironic humor.
There are several stunts combined with camera movements that are genuinely jaw-dropping, including a sequence in which Army helicopters chase down a truck on a desert road, as well as a repeated motif of wild car stunts captured from inside a vehicle. It puts the performers close to the action and underscores the sense of realism and ever-present danger.
“Sicario” felt topical at the height of panic about narco violence creeping over the border. But “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” feels even more urgent, bringing to mind the current crisis of deportations and detention centers. What resonates even more is the nihilism of a government operating violent shadow operations without much sense of purpose or seemingly any moral code.
It’s appropriate that Emily Blunt’s character from the first film doesn’t return for the second. The FBI agent who wanted to do the right thing has no place in this world. With her moral compass out of the picture, the audience shoulders that burden. There are no heroes in these films — Graver is a highly paid assassin who uses irony and strategy to dehumanize his victims. Alejandro is motivated by his past but bottles up his emotions to fuel his killing. Perhaps he’ll get out of it, you think, but he doesn’t, just working to set up the next generation. This cycle of violence is bleak, dark and neverending, and the only way off the ride is death.