In 2013 the United States public was shocked by the atrocities committed by the ISIS forces half a world away, yet they glossed over the crimes of the Mexican cartels merely miles from the nation’s borders. Director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners) gives us an unsettlingly-realistic view into the war between the United States government and the gangs from within our Southern-neighbor’s fences with Sicario. The film is at times nerve-wracking, disturbing, satisfying, and–unfortunately–boring, yet it succeeds as a whole.

The movie is centered around an FBI agent, Kate Macer (played by Emily Blunt) who specializes in raids on suspected kidnappers; particularly kidnappings performed by Mexican cartels in the States. As the film began, I predicted her to be a welcome addition into the ranks of women in cinema who challenge the archetypes of the fragile and helpless damsel in distress. Yet as the credits rolled the only thought that came to my mind was that of how much of a burden she was for the entire run-time. It’s important that she be a wrench in the works of the operation she’s involved in, for the sake of her character’s morality, but the execution of her actions made me see her as naïve and emotional more than I feel I was supposed to. I felt bad for not empathizing with her plight, for the record. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy or maybe it’s because I personally sided with the “Department of Defense” crew (more on them in a bit), but I just couldn’t see exactly why she reacted the way she did. Blunt does a fantastic job for the role she was given, to be clear, but that role makes her feel a lot more like dead weight than I wish it would have.

Now, although the film is wrapped around the stressed-out, idealistic FBI agent, the screen is stolen by Benicio del Toro’s performance as the out-for-blood Alejandro. The man’s past is slowly revealed to the audience as the story progresses, as well as his loyalty to the American government. His presence is commanding in every scene as he is clearly the most dangerous person in any room he’s put in, yet his motives are just as compelling and important to the plot as his fighting is to the entertainment value of the movie. Where I failed to see eye-to-eye with Macer, I completely understood why Alejandro became the man that he is. That isn’t to suggest, however, that either character was either poorly-acted or poorly-written, merely that they have both been exposed to the world of Juarez and that they have both taken vastly different paths consequently. Accompanying Alejandro is an elite squad of killers created by and utilized by the United States government. The men of Delta Squad, the team working with Alejandro and Matt Graver (played excellently by Josh Brolin), aren’t necessarily wildly important individually, but it’s impossible to see their almost machine-like effectiveness in a combat situation as mundane.

You know what is boring? Watching Kate trying to cope with the world around her when I would rather be watching Delta Squad doing what Delta Squad does best. The scenes that focus on Kate are important obviously, (the film is, afterall, about her and the morality of Matt’s work), but I didn’t get much out of them other than the fact that Kate is obsessed with work and that she’s starting smoking again thanks to all the new stress in her life. That being said, the tension and suspense in Sicario is top-of-the-line. The movie clearly found inspiration in Zero Dark Thirty and its rapid scenes, and it works.

Sicario is a well-directed, well-acted, and generally entertaining movie that isn’t necessarily ground-breaking, but does accomplish what it set out to achieve.