If you cannot handle violence or graphic imagery, this movie is not for you. If you believe we live in a perfect American society, and that no government is as honest as ours, this movie may not be your favorite, but if you watch it, you may learn a thing or two about the world around you.

I walked into this movie with little knowledge about its director, Dennis Villanueve, but with adequate knowledge about what I thought this film would be about: the devastating effect of cartel activity in Mexico, and its gradual spill onto US soil. To say that this film threw a curveball at me would be an understatement.

“Sicario” takes place on the Arizona-Mexico frontier. It tells the story of FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) who runs a kidnap response team. In the opening scene, Kate and her colleague Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya) lead an assault on a house in Arizona. In the search for hostages, they find only corpses; these corpses are revealed to be victims of the violent drug trade that cartels conduct across the border.

Her success in the venture peaks the interest of a group of men whose real purpose remains ambiguous throughout most of the film. All we learn at this point and beyond  is that they are anti-cartel. The group is led by Matt (Josh Brolin), and its most important member is a mysterious man named Alejandro (Benicio del Torro), who we later become familiar with as “Medellín.”

This film is difficult to sit through, for both good and bad reasons. Kate agrees to aid in the fight against the man responsible for the horror she witnessed in Arizona (cartel king-pin Manuel Díaz, played by Bernardo Saracino), but she has no idea what she got herself into, and neither do we. She’s confused as she’s dragged along to work in missions she knows nothing about. She has no idea where she’s being taken or why, and she constantly asks questions that are never answered. If Villanueve’s goal is for the audience’s confusion to resonate with Kate’s, he’s succeeded tremendously.

“Sicario” is most importantly a difficult movie to watch because it reveals a harsh reality that our nation fails to acknowledge about a country that lies just south of the border.

I assume it’s the first time a lot of viewers saw mutilated corpses hang as a warning sign at the the side of an overpass. People walked out of the movie theater immediately after witnessing just a glimpse of what Mexican citizens walk pass on a daily basis. Children playing soccer are hardly moved by gunshots being fired around the corner, and explosions are referred to as fireworks. Villanueve depicts the tragic reality in a poignantly successful manner. The corruption lies not only in the cartels, but in law enforcement, as it is revealed through a rearview mirror.

This movie is brutally honest, and Villanueve is not afraid to criticize the American federal government as well. The manner in which Matt’s anti-cartel possé handles business is far from honorable, and it makes you wonder how these people have connections with the FBI in the first place. All I can say about this is, sometimes it might be okay to help a bad guy in order to defeat an even worse guy. Don’t forget, sicario means hitman in Spanish.

What makes this movie excruciating to sit through at times is that when there is a lack of crossfire, it can be rather slow. It isn’t as upfront with the plotline as you assume it will be, and it requires a great amount of critical thinking. Nonetheless, if you manage to sit through this action-thriller, you will be pleased.