Sicario 2015

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: This is one of the best movies of the year. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan aren't selling more than a tautological action movie with the dread and body count of a horror film. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: A well-deserved showcase for Emily Blunt. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Villeneuve, cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Johann Johannsson combine to make the action scenes gorgeous, scary and exciting, while the script by Taylor Sheridan is mordant and smart, with not a wasted word. Read more

Scott Foundas, Variety: 'Prisoners' director Denis Villeneuve returns with a blisteringly suspenseful, ever surprising cartel thriller. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: One can easily ignore the film's ambitious subtext and enjoy it strictly on the basis of its terrific performances and nonstop intensity. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Within this dark epic of American failure lives an effective but decidedly minor vigilante flick. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This is suspenseful stuff, but hanging over the action is the pungent smell of social failure, as the drug war turns both sides into monsters. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The first hour of this latest film from French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is sleek, terrific pulp. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: By the end, it packs a death stare so potent it will make you want to turn a blind eye to the shadowy brutality of its real-world horrors. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: [Villeneuve] hasn't forgotten that he's making a thriller, and he's made one that's both nerve-shatteringly suspenseful and, thanks to noted cinematographer Roger Deakins, gorgeous to watch. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: With a taut and timely screenplay by Taylor Sheridan, Sicario is a brilliant action thriller with the smarts of a message movie. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: The violence of the inter-American drug trade has served as the backdrop for any number of films for more than three decades, but few have been as powerful and superbly made as Sicario. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: Directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script by Taylor Sheridan, the film manages to somehow be sleek and sprawling, focused and cagey at the same time, often in the same scene. Read more

Amy Nicholson, L.A. Weekly: Villeneuve's proven he's got a strong punch. The trouble is, he barely aims. Read more

Tony Hicks, San Jose Mercury News: Director Denis Villeneuve delivers screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's story layer by layer, never overwhelming the audience while still challenging it to pay attention. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: This is not the first movie about the war being waged across the U.S.-Mexico border over the drug trade, but it's the first film in which the aura of constant menace and threat lingers and follows you home. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: If "Sicario" does not collapse under its own grimness, that is because of the pulse: the care with which Villeneuve keeps the story beating, like a drum, as he steadies himself for the next set piece. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: If the film is a little too macho and far too Anglo to tell the full, ugly story of all the villains and victims, it is, like all of Villeneuve's films, a bravura piece of filmmaking. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This dramatic thriller finds a spot somewhere between your brain and your stomach, and drills in. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: After a while these sounds and images start to feel like expressions of technique, and they become at once numbing and sensational, and instead of a movie about violence we're watching another violent movie, after all. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Succeeds in evoking the anarchic violence of the drug wars raging on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: An unforgettable motion picture that should be on the must-see list for anyone who appreciates films that deal in grays rather than blacks and whites. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: A gripping and tension-packed spin through America's covert War on Drugs. Prepare to be haunted for a good long time. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Villeneuve handles action scenes with impressive flair, but also understands that the key to effective action is to build up to it slowly and inexorably. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: There are no rules, and no reason, in this world of death and revenge, and we see it through Kate's eyes: fascinated, repelled, ultimately haunted. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It has a screenplay of freshness and audacity that's brought to life by a director who understands its every psychological undercurrent. We might hope this kind of thing would happen all the time, but it's rare. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Sicario opens on a power chord of fear, nausea, and dread that resonates throughout the whole movie. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Combining relentless action with the story of a woman confronting a corrupted system, it hits with the staggering energy of a visceral kick in the guts - causing a sensory recoil in every scene. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Far from being just another crime story, "Sicario" is cinema at its most ambitious. Read more

Christopher Orr, The Atlantic: Sicario is a remarkable, thrilling, intermittently brilliant film-and yet nonetheless a mild disappointment. Read more

Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail: We can thank Villeneuve and rookie screenwriter Taylor Sheridan's tight script, but also Blunt, Brolin and Del Toro, each of whom has never been better. Read more

Sandy Cohen, Associated Press: Villeneuve has crafted a compelling, unflinching look at the deadly and complicated war on drugs, one that will challenge the attitudes of even the most straight-edged and law-abiding viewers. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Sicario paints the bleakest of portraits of a realistic situation, drawn from headlines about Mexican cartels that stack bodies with savage efficiency. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Mixes arthouse and grindhouse into a most satisfying cocktail. Read more

Guy Lodge, Time Out: Denis Villeneuve takes on the Mexican drug trade in this stern, robust, abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter thriller. Read more

Liz Braun, Toronto Sun: Director Denis Villeneuve, aided and abetted by cinematographer Roger Deakins, fills Sicario with dread and a violence that happens to be stunning to look at. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Denis Villeneuve's film turns out to be a stupendously unnerving descent into moral chaos, our presumed action hero Alice in Cartel-land. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: Villeneuve's movies occupy a spectrum between thought-provoking and mind-bending, and it's clear that he wants to guide Taylor Sheridan's script into similar territory. Read more