October 15, 2015 -- The “war on drugs,” much like the prohibition against alcohol that preceded it, has been a colossal failure. This movie makes the case that drug trafficking into the U.S. can't be stopped, only managed through illegal alliances between a kind of shadow U.S. government and various drug cartels. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know this is one violent, cynical, depressing movie about the interaction between drug lords and governments. It seems quite a bit over the top.

Like most Hollywood movies, this one lends itself to some conspiracy theories, including ones involving CIA alliances with drug cartels. In this film, an FBI agent, Kate Mercer (played by Emily Blunt of “Edge of Tomorrow”) stumbles upon a kind of house of horrors in the suburbs. The house has numerous corpses of tortured murder victims hidden in its walls — all victims of the drug trade. At the same time, a member of her team is killed by a booby trap bomb near the house.

Sensing that the honorable and idealistic Mercer has a score to settle, a mysterious CIA operative, Matt Graver (Josh Brolin of “Inherent Vice”) gets her assigned to his barely legal team of operatives, telling her she can help capture the man responsible for the death of her fellow agent. In reality, Mercer and her FBI agent partner, Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya of “Kick Ass-2”) are being cynically used to give regulatory cover to the operation.

Mercer is bewildered by the mysterious team, composed of shadowy interagency operatives and special forces soldiers. They don't operate out of law enforcement facilities. Instead, they operate out of military bases. One man in particular puzzles Mercer, Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro of “Inherent Vice”). He isn't military and he isn't law enforcement either. He isn't even American, but he is smart, dangerous, knows all about the drug trade, and has his own agenda.

Mercer tries to handle herself as a law enforcement officer. She tries to gather evidence to make cases, but it soon becomes very clear this isn't an investigation, it is a war. She has become a soldier with almost no say in how this battle is being fought. Alejandro puts a gun to her head and tells her to find another occupation. He tells her, “You will not survive here. You are not a wolf, and this is a land of wolves now.”

This is a very slickly-made film, with a fast pace and brutal action. The performances are excellent, and there are no wasted elements in the screenplay. We are taken along on Mercer's wild, breathless ride. There is no time to reflect on what she is involved in and little information is revealed about the big picture until near the end (but she knows enough that she isn't innocent in all that goes on). In this movie, the end justifies the means and might makes right. Law, justice and morality are afterthoughts. People are manipulated ruthlessly.

Maybe the war on drugs has gotten this bad, but I hope not. There are no heroes in this film. Nobody comes along to bring law, order and justice into this situation. We are left to ride a tornado of violence and cynical alliances. This reminds me of “No Country for Old Men,” but without the supernatural element and the convenient coincidences. It is more realistic than that, and much more frightening. This film rates a B+.

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