‘Sicario’ Trailer: Emily Blunt Joins the Drug War

If you were a fan of Prisoners or Enemy, here’s a movie you’ve got to have your radar: Sicario, the latest from director Denis Villeneuve.

Like Prisoners, Sicario is a bleak thriller with what looks to be incredible cinematography from the great Roger Deakins. It takes Villeneuve into new narrative territory, though, as he explores the drug war from both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border. Emily Blunt stars as an idealistic FBI agent who starts working with a team assigned to bring down the Mexican drug cartels. Her boss is played by Joss Brolin, and she’s assisted in her efforts by a mysterious consultant played by Benicio Del Toro. But her task is far murkier and more dangerous than it appears.

Sicario debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last month, and was met with generally strong reviews. A few, like Mike D’Angelo’s at The Dissolve, were really positive; he called it “radically subversive” and praised the way it “blithely torpedoes the most basic rules of audience identification.” He also compared it to a version of Training Day where Ethan Hawke witnesses Denzel Washington’s corruption but can do nothing to stop it. Without seeing the film, the trailer also calls to mind Traffic, not just because of the subject matter but the presence of Del Toro as a figure of stoic and world-weary awareness. And that Deakins photography looks absolutely gorgeous.

Sicario opens in theaters on September 18.