El Sicario: Room 164

2010

1h 20m

Documentary

List

92%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

67%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

A hit man who killed hundreds of people was -- for many years -- a police officer.

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Prime Video

Rent El Sicario: Room 164 on Prime Video, or buy it on Prime Video.

Nicolas Rapold

Film Comment Magazine

Gianfranco Rosi's extraordinary one-man documentary stares long and hard at the practiced but no less terrifying monologues of a Mexican hit man.

Jun 28, 2013

Full Review

Mark Jenkins

NPR

The stories are horrific, if laced with Tarantino-style humor.

Jan 4, 2012

Full Review

Alison Willmore

AV Club

El Sicario: Room 164 is an almost laughably simple, aggressively drab-looking film, but it packs a wallop.

Rated: B+

Dec 29, 2011

Full Review

Sarah Boslaugh

Playback:stl

...never dull thanks to the intrinsic interest of the subject matter and dramatic sense and disarming frankness of the narrator, whose attitude and lack of regrets could be summed up as "business is business."

Rated: 7/10

Apr 12, 2012

Full Review

Donald J. Levit

ReelTalk Movie Reviews

This one-man dramatization is not a film, but surely an indictment. Rosi's 'grey zone where good and evil meet' is wide of the mark; this is pure evil.

Feb 6, 2012

Full Review

Ron Wilkinson

Monsters and Critics

What appears to be a monologue documentary illuminates the elephant in the room. We are the killers.

Rated: 8/10

Dec 30, 2011

Full Review

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Audience Member

A scary view into Juarez.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Docu flippant... J'annule définitivement mes vacances au nord du Mexique.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Unfortunately, all the academies in Mexico for training the special police, the investigative police, the military police, and the army, are used by the narcos as training grounds for future employees. You see, anyone who goes through an academy is ready to go to work for the narcos. [...] Of the 200 [police academy] graduates, 50 are already getting paid by the narcos." The Departed, or Goodfellas, in real life.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I have seen it, in English, legitimately. Incredibly dark, important film. If not to the systemic corruption and sanctioned drug trafficking which is crucially relevant to current affairs in Mexico, then it is an important piece into the psychology of someone who explains his "work" in a tone you expect a teacher would explain their administrative responsibilities. His description of early enticement into the trade, through training, through to various responsibilities and participation in conducting brutality of "enormous suffering" at the will of "el patron", is chilling and deeply disturbing. This interview is not only the confession of a mass murderer, it is a testament to how organized and how rooted the drug industry is in the Mexican economy and politics. An echo of a tragic history which ripples across south America over the decades. -nimbletreefrog

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/02/23

Full Review

Audience Member

minimalist and chilling. very matter of fact. it's unsettling but fascinating. very effective.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If you aren't into uncomfortable truths about the evil that lives in the hearts of humankind, stay very far away from this movie. The only part I didn't like was... Ah shit it's a spoiler. Nevermind.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

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Synopsis

A hit man who killed hundreds of people was -- for many years -- a police officer.

Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Producer: Olivier Daunizeau
Screenwriter: Charles Bowden, Gianfranco Rosi
Production Co: Les Films d'ici, Arte France
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Spanish
Release Date (Streaming): May 17, 2019
Runtime: 1h 20m

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