Films

I saw True Romance in York Picturehouse, 1993, I was the only bod in the cinema on Guy Fawkes' Night, on 'shrooms.

Nice.

I saw fear and loathing in las Vegas in Cambridge Picture house at midnight. Me and my mate the only people there, seriously drunk and shouting at the screen / hiding behind chairs / running around like monkeys. It was ace fun.

I saw Jack Nicholson's cinematic masterpiece Wolf on acid at that ^ cinema. It was less of a masterpiece when I saw it straight a few years later.

Ip Man 3 is out in a couple of weeks.

#imtheonlyonewhocares

Ha! started watching this Thursday, got halfway, finished it tonight.
Really enjoyable, to my humour.

If you want it really black try man bites dog :)

The bombita story was my fav :)

yet still was essentially US MIC propaganda

What's US MIC propaganda? I didn't really pic up on any propaganda. The film was pretty harsh all round. (And was directed by a Canadian).

I enjoyed it. Also, Benicio del Toro is melting.

It's a very good film, yes. But it's essentially a more subtle and seemingly complex justification for the projection of US military industrial complex power than the film I previously mentioned.
There are strong parallels, thematically, between Sicario and Zero Dark Thirty; the latter of which is literally a US MIC funded production.
The methods which the US MIC has been castigated for involving "enhanced interrogation techniques," disdain for legal frameworks nationally and internationally, dehumanisation of those designated "other", illegal intelligence operations conducted both in the US and without, etc, etc, are now reframed within the context of the Mexican/US drug war and shown to be good and right.

Or the right of might.

Whether the director's nationality has any bearing or not (I think not) the film hews to a particular framing of the projection of military force preponderant in Hollywood.

As for Del Toro melting; I think it's amazing that he's getting squintier than ever. Soon they'll have a full time assistant on the set to pry his eyelids open so that he can read the film script. :-D

are now reframed within the context of the Mexican/US drug war and shown to be good and right.

Okay - spoilers.

It's interesting because we've got to very different places having watched the same film. It seems to me that it's much more a critique of America's less-than-innocent role in the violence attached to the war on drugs (think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal).

With the exception of the two FBI agents, all of the Americans - and people working with the Americans - are pretty horrible. The US is shown to be (attempting to) prop up the cartel of its choice, and in the process, uses and excuses the same tactics used by the narcos they're fighting (the reasons may be pragmatic, but they are never shown to be "good and right" - on the contrary, they are shown to result in the deaths and suffering of innocent, as well as bad, people). I think this is made quite clear in the end, but maybe you disagree.

Del Toro is pissed because his wife and daughter were murdered. He hunts down the Mexican cartel boss responsible. At the dinner table this boss claims a) it was impersonal and b) they learned the techniques from "the people who sent you here." What does Del Toro do? Say it was personal for him, and kill the dude and his family (which is what the Americans wanted him to do). However, he also, a) "impersonally" killed the cop minutes earlier, leaving a kid without a father. And b) does all of this with aid, finance, technology, support, presumably training, of the US. Del Toro is no different. But he's only the actor, not the agent (he's the Sicario, working for the US).

The point being, the Americans are entirely tangled up in that moral, and legal, shit-storm. The protagonist recognizes this (that the actions of her fellow Americans were not "good and right") and the only thing that stops her from going public is, literally, a gun held to her head.

I don't essentially disagree with some of your points.

For me it boils down not to the fact that the US is shown to be complicit in the senseless and immoral deaths of many people, but that its stance is beyond good and evil and lays with the strong, the wolves.

This is the "right of might" I speak of. My saying that it is "good and right" is only within what can be regarded as such within that context.
The weak, then, that are regarded as lesser and in a perverted sense in this regard, immoral and without character, are such people as the law abiding FBI agent whose whimpering, simpering ineptitude in the face of being stalked by "wolves" while clinging to the illusion of the rule of law (though these people purport to be on her side, and the side of justice. It's just that their justice occupies ethical high ground in the alternate universe of the spooks).
Also included in this are her partner whose well meaning and good intentions are impotent in the face of the "just let it happen" as a special forces soldier stands on his chest with a gun to his head as the head wolf roughs up the lamb a little bit to properly "advise her" (Blunt's character).

We see things differently, yes, but I think some thought might be placed in the fact that a sequel has been commisioned starring Del Toro's Sicario. It will apparently be a vehicle solely for him. Placing such emphasis on the very deliverer of death and mayhem is evidence to my mind of the further mythologising of very worst traits in human character produced by the effects of war.
On a simple level you could just say that the most flawed, dark characters make for the most interesting stories but I think that this sort of film operates on different levels and not only one so basic.
Saying that I would actually watch that sequel.

Perhaps finally I can make the argument that film presents two worldviews: that the two approaches by governmental agencies in the film, one; strict, morally grounded, following the letter of the law by individuals with conscience and humanity is trounced, being ineffective and a complete failure in the face of the amoral warrior wolves who will employ any method to achieve their goals.

And they do.

I enjoyed Sicario as a movie but it left me with the same empty feeling I got after watching Zero Dark Thirty...

I getchya. There's certainly a Machiavellian undertone to it all. That's essential to the story it's telling. But, as I saw it, it's definitely not Nietzschean - or beyond good and evil, as you say. Both exist in the world the film is set in. Every character, even Del Toro, have a sense of this which motivates. What is more, the film seems to want to draw attention to these competing conceptions of morality.

Anyway, I don't see it as US military industrial complex propaganda. The point - for me - seems to be that the US is complacent in evil acts as a party in the war on drugs.

What is more, the film seems to want to draw attention to these competing conceptions of morality.

Yes, but in a strange way I think that a single conception is demonstrated as the one as part of the narrative.

I could be biased toward identifying a specific part of the story but I think it's because I have high suspicions that just like Zero Dark Thirty there was strong CIA and military influence on the production. Just better hidden than with Bigelow's movie.

As I said earlier though, I think that Sicario is an exceedingly well made movie, in terms of story, acting, pacing, script, etc. Totally unlike American Sniper which was a one-dimensional snore fest with some fucking sorry acting from the lead.

I will be looking out for the Sicario sequel.

That's the serial killer who forces the two camera guys to follow him etc...?

The road rage was my fave, and the wedding at the end :)

"Oooh, brown, that's my favourite colour..." I cracked up at that.

And @t_w

I think you're both right. The might=right narrative in the film is seductive, not least because it's somehow cathartic . And I think part of the film's effectiveness is that it conveys some of that feeling, hints at why this path so beguiles US policymakers. The FBI agent characters are a necessary foil to this so that the film retains some kind of moral anchor - you could tell the story without their being central characters. But because they're central they highlight the tension between the two worlds, culminating in the end scene where might wins. For the moment.

That part of the narrative is seductive, I agree, and this combined with the contrast provided by Blunt's lead - being shown to be weak & totally impotent in the face of spook stratagems - tends me towards my conclusions.

On a tangent it seems that the end scene was concocted by Del Toro & Blunt after the original scripted one was deemed inappropriate by the actors, Blunt in particular. And I don't blame her.
Apparently it was intended that there would be a fight between them where Blunt's character was to have been almost stripped naked and defiled. Not literally defiled but shown to be beaten and exposed, physically and mentally.
Seeing that kind of thing would have left a bad taste in my mouth. At least in this ending there was some part in Del Toro's murder machine character tending towards a benign, empathetic regard of Blunt's.

Saw The Revenant and The Hateful 8 last week.

Thoroughly enjoyed both. DiCaprio was as good as he's ever been in this film and should get some recognition for his lengthy body of work.

I've always enjoyed QT's films and his latest certainly doesn't disappoint. His dialogue moves a very long film along at a decent pace with his usual selection of acting staff.

Weakest performance had to be from Michael Madsen - even his wig put in a decent show, but he just doesn't convince and probably hasn't since Reservoir Dogs all those years ago. Tim Roth remains as entertaining as ever, as does SLJ. Jennifer Jason Leigh steals the show.

Both films depicted really very cold conditions indeed.

Sadly sicarios have been around a long time, more sad that Americans continue to make films about this kind of mindless violence, in Latin America.

http://dialogo-americas.com/en_GB/articles/rmisa/features/regional_news/2013/01/21/colombia-sicario

The Revenant is bloody excellent.

I thought it was fantastic too.

Hateful 8 in 70mm Ultrapanavision on Friday night. Should be supercool.

Does anyone have a MUBI account? really cool subscription service!

The Big Short was good. Took me a bit to get into the MTV-meets-experimental style, but once I relaxed it was enjoyable.

Room is absolutely stunning.