Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
The story of a hitman for the drug cartels in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
El Sicario, Room 164 is a remarkably singular documentary in which a masked cartel hitman confesses his life of violence in a single motel room, drawing diagrams on a notepad to illustrate his crimes. Gianfranco Rosi's formal restraint — a nearly static camera fixed on this anonymous, shrouded figure — gives the film an eerie, confessional intensity unlike almost any other documentary. The novelty of its conception and execution is genuinely exceptional. The subject matter is gripping and the hitman's account is credible and chilling, though the film's deliberately minimalist structure limits dramatic arc. The ending dissipates rather than resolves, leaving viewers without a satisfying sense of closure, which is either a strength or weakness depending on taste — but structurally it feels incomplete.