‘Sicario’ sequel offers an artistic dark view

One of the movies I saw last week was "Sicario: Day of the Soldado," Stefano Sollima's sequel to Denis Villeneuve's 2015 original film "Sicario." Following the the review of Sollima's film that I wrote for Spokane Public Radio:

We’re set squarely in the middle of the summer-movie season, a time traditionally reserved for superhero and other kinds of blockbusters. When we encounter evil – a murderous alien, say, or a hungry shark – we typically also meet the people (women as well as men) who band together as the forces of good.

The two “Sicario” films take a different route. The 2015 original, which was directed by Denis Villeneuve from a script by Taylor Sheridan, was a taut, mean little study about the fight against what some people – including the current resident of the White House – see as a dire threat: Mexico’s drug cartels. Whatever the truth of that viewpoint, the original “Sicario” showed Villeneuve at his best, creating a world that is frightening and compelling in its ability to pull us into Sheridan’s dark fantasies.

The central character of that film, an FBI agent played by Emily Blunt, is nowhere to be seen in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” a sequel – also written by Sheridan – but this time directed by Italian-born director Stefano Sollima, one of the directors of the Italian-language TV series “Gomorrah.” But as the original “Sicario” ultimately proved, Blunt’s character was merely a tool, used by a maverick CIA agent named Matt Graver (played by Josh Brolin) and his rogue colleague Alejandro Gillick (played by Benicio del Toro).

Graver and Gillick return in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” a film that picks up where the original left off. This time the actions of the duo demonstrate even better the arrogance, and the duplicity, of the authorities that command them.

Alarmed by a suicide-bombing that occurs in the American heartland – in a Kansas City supermarket, to be specific – the U.S. Department of Defense (headed by a character played by Matthew Modine) decides to enlist Graver to solve the problem. Their plan: to start a conflict between the cartel leaders, thinking that they’ll engage in a civil war that will eliminate them all.

To that end, Graver – having again enlisted Gillick – embarks on a mission to kidnap one of the cartel leader’s daughters (played by Isabela Moner). But things go wrong, as they so often do, and Modine’s character orders a shutdown. And a cleanup. Which means the elimination both of the girl and of Gillick.

That’s where things get really interesting. The other part of the plot involves a young man, a U.S. citizen of Mexican heritage (played by Elijah Rodriguez), who gets enlisted by his cousin to work for one of the cartel bosses. Ultimately, his fate gets intertwined with Gillick’s in a way that makes a “Sicario 3” almost obligatory.

Sollima is no Villeneuve, which is hardly surprising. Few filmmakers can match Villeneuve’s talent for blending arresting visuals with a coherent narrative. But Sollima does have enough skill to keep “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” interesting, even when Sheridan’s script opts to exploit political points for mere excitement.

And credit Sollima for having the great good sense to use Brolin and especially del Toro in ways that give each the freedom to haunt the screen as well as anyone can.