'Sicario' Rips. Taylor Sheridan Should Write for a Great Director Again.
Sheridanverse #6, now on Netflix
I opened the Netflix app and what was at the top of the page, based on my watch history and what I’ve given a 👍? That’s right, Sicario, which was just added to Netflix for the first time on March 1. The algorithm read my mind, because that’s exactly what I was coming to Netflix to watch. Netflix has entered the Sheridanverse.
I hadn’t seen Sicario since it came out. I remember feeling a little let down by it and thinking it was overhyped. In retrospect, I was wrong. It fucking rips, and it deserves its reputation as one of the best thrillers of the past decade. There’s that old line about how a good movie is three great scenes and no bad ones. Sicario fits that description. Great opening, great ending1, and the shootout at the border crossing, and no bad scenes.
Sicario, released in 2015, was Sheridan’s first produced screenplay. It’s about straight-arrow FBI agent Kate, played by Emily Blunt, who gets introduced to the dirty world of dealing with Mexican drug cartels. It starts with her discovering bodies hidden in the walls of a stash house in Arizona, after which she’s recruited by swaggering CIA agent Graver, played by Josh Brolin, to help with an operation to disrupt cartel trade on both sides of the border. Brolin is working with a really scary guy named Alejandro, played with ultimate menace by Benicio del Toro, and Kate can’t figure out what his role is. At the end, she finds out she’s only there to provide cover for the CIA to work domestically, and Alejandro is working for the Medellín cartel, who’s working with the CIA to try to regain monopolistic control of the drug trade and restore order to a business that’s gotten too chaotic and violent. “Until somebody finds a way to convince 20% of the population to stop smoking and snorting that shit, order’s the best we can hope for,” Graver tells her. Alejandro’s true mission is to find and kill cartel boss Fausto Alarcón, who murdered his family when he was working as a prosecutor in Juarez. After he exacts his brutal revenge, Alejandro comes to Kate’s apartment and forces her to sign a paper declaring everything he did was legal. “You are not a wolf, and this is the land of wolves now,” he tells her. And he’s right. She points a gun at him for the second time, after he previously told her to never do it again, but she can’t pull the trigger. It’s a dark and cynical story that’s even more timely now than it was a decade ago.
If there’s a single line of dialogue that made Sheridan who he is, it’s “You are not a wolf, and this is the land of wolves now.” It’s a perfectly articulated idea that he returns to again and again. Lioness Season 2 is about the CIA operating domestically and in Mexico to fight the cartel, and Zoe Saldaña’s Joe is a wolf. She’s a Lioness, of course, but she’s mostly a wolf. And a recurring theme in Landman is that after a period of stability, the West is getting wild again. Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy identifies with a coyote just beyond the edge of his property. They kill coyotes out here, and you have to be smart and tough to survive.
Sicario was directed by Denis Villeneuve, and it helped establish him as one of the top directors in Hollywood. He directed this movie so well. Every shot is so considered and interesting. It was nominated for three Oscars, for its three best elements: Best Cinematography for the big homie Roger Deakins, one of the cinematography GOATs; Best Original Score for the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, whose droning, foreboding score helps give Sicario a seriousness it could have lacked otherwise; and Best Sound Editing for the late Alan Robert Murray, whose ambient noise creates tension and depth. Sicario is one of the best-sounding movies I’ve ever…heard.
Sicario is chilly in a way Sheridan’s own productions are not. It’s more emotionally reserved compared to how he prefers to do it. The dialogue isn’t so operatic, and the actors don’t go as big. Villeneuve may have tempered Sheridan’s instinct toward excess (or perhaps Sheridan hadn’t embraced excess at this point in his career). It would be cool to see a great director film a Sheridan screenplay again. This is kind of the only time it’s happened. After Sheridan made his directorial debut with Wind River, the only film director he’s worked with is Stefano Sollima, on Sicario: Day of the Soldado and Without Remorse (neither of which I’ve seen). Sollima is good — someday I’d like to write about his limited series ZeroZeroZero for Dad Shows — but he’s no Villeneuve. And as a director, Sheridan is no Villeneuve, either. I don’t know if at this point, Sheridan would be willing to cede control to a director whose vision is different than his own, but I would love to see what a Taylor Sheridan thriller directed by Michael Mann or David Fincher would look like.
Actually, you know what he should do? He should take a weekend and bang out a small contemporary Western for Clint Eastwood to direct, and that could be Clint’s last film. That would be a win-win for everyone.
Also, Jon Bernthal, who is excellent in a small role in Sicario and was in Sheridan’s movies Wind River and Those Who Wish Me Dead, should star in a Sheridan show. Bernthal needs a hit, and Sheridan doesn’t have an FBI show yet. That would also be a win-win for everyone.
The next Sherdianverse will be about 1923 once I’m caught up. Stay tuned.
I made my Metacritic debut with a roundup of Robert Pattinson’s 15 best-reviewed films. My personal favorite is #4.
I also wrote a list of 25 very early 2026 Oscar contenders to be aware of for Gold Derby. I’m most excited for the PTA movie, but Die, My Love sounds really tight, too. That one’s going to make the updated list of Robert Pattinson’s best-reviewed movies.
The ending is actually two great scenes — Alejandro at dinner, and Alejandro and Kate’s final scene.
It is so so so good. Villeneuve has some of the thickest French Canadian speech and mannerisms. He's been constantly made fun of for his English, as well as the fact that he once said something about how movies don't need dialogue. But that's what makes this work, I think. You've nailed it - Sheridan's screenwriting and Villeneuve's direction and atmosphere. Its such a banger.
Love this movie. One of my favorites of the decade for sure. I saw it on an international flight to Australia and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Brilliant filmmaking top to bottom.