Save The Children

“Sicario 2: Soldado” and “Custody.”

- Anthony Lane

Bad timing, or a lucky break? Either way, the release of “Sicario 2: Soldado” verges on the uncanny. Stefano Sollima’s film is set in various places, including Djibouti and the Gulf of Somalia, but the main dramatic arena is the border between Mexico and the United States, across which the characters make zealous efforts either to transport other humans or, alternatively, to stop them in their tracks. The minds of many viewers will immediately drift away from the fictional narrative and toward the actual events of recent weeks, along the same boundary, where children have been sundered from their immigrant parents and housed in detention centers. On June 23rd, news footage showed protesters blocking a bus as it left one of the centers, in McAllen, Texas, and chanting, “Set the children free.” And what particular spot do we visit, early in the film? McAllen.

There, we meet a teenager, Miguel (Elijah Rodriguez), whose house is next to a border fence, on the American side, and who is recruited into the illegal immigrant trade. Miguel, with his air of shyness and cunning, is a minor presence in the story, and yet without him it would not twist and turn as it does. The script is by Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the original “Sicario” (2015), and though both tales abound in explosions, he likes nothing better than to light the fuse of a subplot and have it slowly burn. Some of his protagonists from the first film return for duty here: Matt Graver (Josh Brolin), a federal agent whose sacred calling is to do the dirty work of the U.S. government and to clean up afterward; his sidekick, Steve Forsing (Jeffrey Donovan), who commits himself to chaos without removing his spectacles, like a homicidal librarian; and Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), whose last name is never revealed. Everything about him feels classified, to be honest, down to his trigger finger.