Sicario (15)
This brilliantly executed thriller posits a contemporary war on drugs that blurs the moral boundaries in a way that is thought-provoking and grimly disturbing. Emily Blunt is the idealistic FBI agent drafted into a "multi-agency" operation against a Mexican drug cartel whose tactics are highly questionable, if not illegal. Benicio del Toro is the mysterious and scary "consultant", who likens finding and dealing with the cartel boss to “finding a vaccine", but is no angel himself, Josh Brolin the smiling puppet-master who drafts Blunt into his very dangerous and dodgy operation. Directed with muscular conviction by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners).
Regression (15)
If Sicario is one of the best films of the year, Regression is one of the worst. Ethan Hawke is a detective charged with investigating the alleged abuse of a Minnesota teenager (Emma Watson) by her father, and stumbles on a conspiracy involving satanic rituals. It’s hysterical and predictable hokum, which is surprising given that the director is Spaniard Alejandro Amenábar, who made the superior horror The Others.
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