“You will not survive here. You are not a wolf. This is a land of wolves now.” Grimly spoken from the shadows during Sicario’s closing scene, these three sentences sum up its essence. Director Denis Villeneuve shows his talent by delivering a taut narrative that contrasts the beauty of the arid plains bordering the United States and Mexico with the vicious drug conflicts that lace the landscape. It is fitting that the film’s characters, who spend their time crossing and re-crossing the physical border between two countries, are themselves mercurial. The divide between the predators and the prey constantly shifts in the barren landscape.

Faced with escalating cartel activity, the U.S. government places Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) in charge of team to combat the narcotics trade using more direct and violent methods. Graver enlists Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and the mysterious hitman Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), but refuses to explain what his team is achieving by taking the fight into Mexico. Macer becomes increasingly disenchanted with her new team’s illegal activity and her position as the only woman on her team. As the violence escalates on both sides of the border, the motivations and loyalties of both Graver and Alejandro grow more obscure.

At first, Macer promises to exert a forceful morality on the shadowy world of counternarcotics, but she quickly proves outmatched by the sweeping scale of the violence her team must confront. Graver, too, is not what he initially seems to be: at first introduction he is funny and engaging. Once Macer sees more of his methods, however, his humor becomes a veneer to a vicious side that defies justification. By gradually exposing the flaws of its characters, Sicario maintains an unsettling dramatic tension that defines the film as a successful thriller rather than an action movie.

Although Blunt and Brolin make
 a convincing and dynamic pair,
their roles are primarily supportive:
 Villeneuve skillfully balances their
 shifting roles around the immovable 
figure of Alejandro. Benicio Del Toro’s mesmerizing performance gives
the film its compelling grip. As Alejandro, Del Toro appears constantly
 weary, with heavy eyelids and a slow walk that hints of a limp. His passive appearance is precisely what makes Del Toro’s performance so riveting. Rather than playing the role of the enigmatic hit man as sinister or threatening, a more expected take on the trope, Del Toro makes Alejandro appear vulnerable, older and softer than the other government operatives and the young narcotic gunmen Alejandro faces. His demeanor conflicts with the evident respect and fear Alejandro has garnered from the other operatives, forcing the audience to concentrate on his every word or motion to try to glean some explanation for his reputation. Just as Alejandro appears to be impenetrable, Del Toro allows only the briefest of slips in Alejandro’s weary expression, beguiling the audience as we wait to see who he truly is.

Ultimately all the characters must face the question of whether or not they are able to be predators. With compelling dramatic depth, Sicario withholds the answer to produce a riveting conclusion that determines who will survive in a land meant for wolves.