It would be disingenuous to not acknowledge that it’s often off putting when you see a movie and your fellow critics don’t react with the same enthusiasm. After seeing “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” a few weeks ago I left the theater impressed with Stefano Sollima’s English-language feature debut, a sequel to Denis Villeneuve‘s 2015 thriller, “Sicario.” And a number of critics and writers I respect felt the same way. By opening day, however, “Soldado” had effectively polarized the nation’s critics with massively different opinions resulting in a 60 on Metacritic and a 62% on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers seems to be into it as it earned a strong $19 million at the box office in the face of juggernauts “Jurassic World: Forbidden Kingdom” and “Incredibles 2.”
READ MORE: Early reactions to ‘Sicario 2’ say the film is ‘Amazing’ and ‘Fantastic’
Before the film opened I sat down to chat with Sollima about making the second installment of a proposed “Sicario” trilogy and his adventures in Hollywood so far. The Italian filmmaker discussed how he replaced almost everyone in the crew intentionally from the first film, finding a visual aesthetic without Roger Deakins involved and how the film’s initial scene linking the border with terrorism was always something they knew would be slightly controversial. He also praises the film’s to younger stars, the relatively unknown (to movie audiences at least) Isabella Moner and Elijah Rodriguez, who’s Mexican accent when speaking Spanish ended up being a huge benefit. And, thanks to my prodding, the inevitable frustration over the eight month release date delay which he notes “was worth the wait.”
It should be noted this interview was recorded at the Four Season Hotel in Beverly Hills where we had major difficulty turning off the music piping through the venue’s sound system. Still, it’s a great conversation with a director who you’ll be hearing about for years to come.
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Check out previous episodes with “The Handmaid’s Tale’s” Yvonne Strahovski,”Counterpart” creator Justin Marks, “Alex Strangelove” writer and director Craig Johnson, “The Disaster Artist” screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, “Darkest Hour” screenwriter Anthony McCarten, two-time Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz, Ben Mendelsohn, “Blade Runner: 2049‘s” Denis Villeneuve, “Thor: Ragnarok‘s” Taika Waititi, “The Florida Project‘s” Sean Baker, John Boyega, get behind the scenes with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” producers and more on Soundcloud or on iTunes.
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