Denis Villeneuve and Roger Deakins team up again – previously Prisoners (2013) – to bring us a movie entrenched in the Mexican Drugs cartels and agencies designed to curb their activities. After rising through the ranks of her male-dominated profession, idealistic and naive FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) receives a top assignment for an undisclosed mission.

Recruited by mysterious government official Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), Kate joins a task force for the escalating war against drugs. Led by the intense and shadowy Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), the team travels back-and-forth across the U.S.-Mexican border, using one cartel boss o flush out a bigger one.

While Kate has her suspicions that everything that she now involved in is not 100% legal however she continues to journey down the “rabbit-hole”, will her curiosity lead her off the path she set her career on or have even more dire consequences?

Review

“The Chairman” – This is one pretty intense movie that tell us one thing, Benicio Del Toro is back and my goodness he delivers a performance that will make you piss your pants if you had the misfortune of ever running into his character in the real world.

Emily Blunt actually made me hate her character, I have never seen an experienced FBI agent that is so naïve to the way the world works and the things you need to do in order to get results.

Josh Brolin is her guide into this dark and murky underworld, his work has made him jaded and willing to do despicable things to get the job done. The relationship between Kate and Matt is there to provide the audience with stark contrast to getting the job done, and what that does to persons’ soul/heart.

I am not a cinematic nerd, but the cinematography by Roger Deakins is beautiful and awe inspiring. The only problem – which is a big problem – with the movie is the direction, the storytelling is clunky which detracts from great performances from the whole cast. I see a few Oscar nominations coming from this movie, for acting and visual effects. It’s a worthwhile watch, but can be view at home. 6.7/10

Please leave a comment on your thoughts of the movie.