Taylor Sheridan continues to work tirelessly on television Yellowstone, Landman, and countless others, it’s important to remind fans that he began his Hollywood career as an actor before focusing on screenwriting. Sheridan’s first official writing credit came in 2015 with the outstanding drug cartel drama SicarioDirected by the extremely talented French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve in his sixth feature film.

However, they have gone their separate ways since working together, with Sheridan turning to television and Villeneuve directing the monumental blockbuster Dune, Sicario marks a rare screenwriter-director partnership in which both parties elevate each other to create a truly unforgettable piece of cinema, which received three Oscar nominations and spawned an official sequel. Hoping that Sheridan and Villeneuve join forces again, fans of both need to be careful Sicario to see how well the writer and director work together.

Who are Taylor Sheridan and Denis Villeneuve?

Taylor Sheridan is an American actor who began his television career in 1995 with an appearance in ” Walker, Texas Ranger. His first recurring TV role followed Veronica Mars before becoming a series regular Sons of Anarchy from 2008 to 2010. Switching gears to focus on screenwriting, Sheridan delivered his first feature film script in 2015 Sicario. Sheridan also wrote the great bank robbery drama Hell or high water and the deeply emotional crime drama Wind flowmaking him the next promising Hollywood writer.

After writing three smaller subsequent features, including Sicario: Day of the Soldado, without regrets, And Those who wish me dead Sheridan turned creatively to television Yellowstone for Paramount+, a hugely successful TV Western soap opera that has spawned several spin-off shows. In addition to the Yellowstone Spin-offs 1883, 1923, 6666And The Madisoncreated Sheridan The Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, The Last Cowboy, Special Ops: Lioness, and lastly, Countryman.

Denis Villeneuve is a French-Canadian director who made his feature film debut with the 1998 romantic drama August 32nd on Earth. After doing the underrated So-called in 2000, Villeneuve achieved international recognition in 2010 incensea hard-hitting war drama that is currently ranked #101 on the IMDb Top 250.

incense gave way to the terrific crime drama Prisoners in 2013, two years before Villeneuve and Sheridan joined forces Sicario. Villeneuve’s post-Sicario credits include: Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, and the two-parter dune epos. Just as Sheridan has risen to the top of the TV food chain, Villeneuve has proven himself to be one of the most talented film directors in Hollywood today.

What is “Sicario” about?

Sicario is an American crime film that focuses on the war on drugs on the US-Mexico border. In his screenwriting debut, Sheridan avoids mere exposition that demands undivided attention. The plot follows Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), an ethical FBI agent recruited by a shadowy CIA task force to infiltrate a powerful Mexican drug cartel and stop its ruthless leader. The deeper Kate delves into the dangerous mission, the more she loses her naivety and the more she begins to understand the complex relationship between the FBI and the CIA.

The title Sicario means “killer” or “assassin” in Spanish. In the film, Kate meets Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro), a trained assassin who used to work as a lawyer in Colombia. Alejandro teams up with CIA supervisor Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to smoke out Manuel Diaz, the leader of the Sonora drug cartel, who conducts his business from a hidden location in the United States. But when Kate realizes how intertwined government agencies are with the cartels, she learns a shocking lesson about the morally compromised nature of the war on drugs.

One of the most memorable moments occurs when Kate and the team are brutally ambushed while crossing the border from El Paso, Texas, into Juárez, Mexico. With no other choice, Kate’s moral fiber is tested when she is forced to shoot a federal police officerwhich sends them down a dangerous path where cops and criminals are equally to blame.

Another standout moment comes when the team pursues Diaz back to Mexico, where they raid the underground tunnels in Nogales, Arizona. Kate continues to cross the border and faces great danger until she learns that Alejandro is not what he seems. Kate’s bright gullibility is dashed when she learns that in the drug war along the border, there is little difference between the good guys and the bad guys, fighting on both sides of the law.

“Sicario” is popular with audiences and critics

Thanks in part to its moral ambiguity and lack of a happy ending, Sicario has been praised by critics for its unwavering authenticity. In 2024 Sicario has a Metascore of 82 and a Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%, indicating near-unanimous praise for the collaboration between Sheridan and Villeneuve. The film also boasts an IMDb rating of 7.7 and a Popcorn Meter score of 85%, suggesting broad appeal that extends well beyond professional film critics. RT’s critical consensus reads: “Led by the outstanding work of Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro, Sicario is a suspenseful, suspenseful thriller that has much more on its mind than just sensational set pieces.”

Past the riveting border raid and the night raid on Nogales, Sicario is characterized by the balance between dramatic tension and an intelligent story that challenges the viewer at every turn. It challenges viewers to follow a complicated plot without feeling contrived, but it also questions viewers’ moral foundations as Kate becomes increasingly preoccupied with the war on drugs. As such, Sicario remains one of the best assassin films of all time.

As The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy writes:

“Imbued with many shades of ambiguity, Denis Villeneuve’s intense new work dramatizes a complex U.S.-led effort to take down a major Mexican drug lord south of the border. It is no less disturbing than his previous features.” Prisoners And incense and should be able to generate medium-sized businesses similar to the former, as they have elements from lawyers (and barristers) traceable.”

A similar opinion is shared by Variety’s Scott Foundas, who explains: “Two years after his U.S. debut with the crack kidnapping drama ‘Prisoners,’ French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve ups the ante with ‘Sicario,’ an incredibly intense drug-dealing thriller , which skillfully combines action and suspense with another disturbing examination of the emotional consequences of violence.”

Finally, Screen Daily’s Fionnuala Flanagan notes how The film subverts the expectations of action films and demands more from viewersexplained:

“Sicario It is difficult to maintain a fragmented plot, leaving the viewer in the dark and only slowly penetrating the twilight. The director spreads out the information slowly over two sprawling, tense storylines that take up the first 40 minutes Sicario‘s term.

Taylor Sheridan couldn’t recapture the magic

Below SicarioThe success, Sheridan wrote the inferior sequel, Sicario: Day of the Soldado. The film suffered from the absence of Villeneuve, who was replaced by Italian director Stefano Sollima. Although Sheridan and Villeneuve have gone their separate ways since working together SicarioNothing would make fans of both happier than a future reunion.

However, Villeneuve recently dismissed rumors of a return Sicario 3, although he praised Sheridan as a writer. According to Villeneuve via The Playlist:

“If Taylor writes a script, I would be thrilled to see it on screen, (but) I haven’t heard of (a new script or project) yet. Nobody talked to me about it. I’m just hearing about it now.”

While both continue to do incredible work independently, Sicario proves that there have hardly been better writer-director duos in the last decade than Taylor Sheridan and Denis Villeneuve. Sicario can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.