Taylor Sheridan’s 2015 crime thriller Sicario has entered HBO Max’s top 10 most popular films, highlighting renewed streaming interest in his first feature screenplay. Directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro, the film is presented as an early example of Sheridan’s neo-Western style and his interest in morally ambiguous institutions.

The story follows FBI agent Kate Macer as she joins a Department of Defense-led operation targeting Mexican drug cartels, only to question its methods and legality. The article argues that Sicario’s bleak view of the drugs war, including the sense that enforcement gains do not translate into safer streets, gives its ending particular force and established themes Sheridan later used in his television and film work.