Miss Bala (2012)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Admirable film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

An amazing film.It does an incredible job of making you feel the tension and fear of the lead actress. Of how powerful the drug cartels are and how helpless and lost Mexico's citizens are.The camera work is great. At times it lingers on so you can see and feel the gravity of the various situations. It does a good job of showing the violence without being too graphic. Turning away the camera at certain moments and letting our mind imagine what is happening based on the sounds.Very well put together movie. You can feel the emotion throughout. The pain. The feat Very impressive. Much higher quality production than many Hollywood movies.

Throughout the ongoing drug conflict in Mexico, multiple stories have come to the media attention without being entirely clear for everybody.Miss Bala shows the connection between models and young attractive drug cartels, women that have been in some occasions being misjudged by a narrow idea of the current dynamics in many Mexican towns and cities. Not a black and white context movie that accurately shows the many sides of a conflict and a war that has been reduced to a body count.With a very good construction of characters, the film shows the inside and probably the reasons that make the drug conflict in Mexico one without an easy way out. Highly recommended to get a wider idea of what people are going on right now, either as a civilian, a cop or a hit-man for a drug cartel.

Why are Mexican films so depressing? That's the question I find myself asking, having watched three recent slices of Mexican cinema: WE ARE WHAT WE ARE, HELI, and now MISS BALA. Okay, so this isn't quite as write-slittingly miserable as REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, but it also lacks the style and gripping storytelling that made the Aronofsky film so compelling.In MISS BALA, the subject is once again Mexican drug gangs, and like HELI we follow the path of an innocent family drawn into an ugly world against their will. The protagonist in this movie is Laura, an attractive young woman who plans on entering a local beauty contest, only to find herself in the grip of some truly unpleasant characters thanks to some poor choices on her part.What follows will surprise nobody with knowledge of the crime and violence prevalent in modern-day Mexico. It's a grim, ugly movie, filled with stark bursts of violence and an unending level of misery directed at the lead. The performances are so naturalistic that they don't even exist; Stephanie Sigman seems to be sleepwalking through her role and as a result it's hard to feel much empathy for her character. Indeed, the whole film is just so nasty that you'll want to take a cold shower afterwards, even though none of it is particularly explicit. Hardly enjoyable viewing, but those interested in the subject matter might get something out of it. Me, I like stories with more suspense, more identifiable characters, people you can get to like and care about, stories that offer a measure of hope instead of unrelenting depression.

MISS BALA is a strong film from Mexico (apparently based on a true account of the unending drug war focused in Tijuana produced by actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna and James Russo who has a role in the film as a corrupt DEA agent) - a film that is unafraid to uncover the ruthless activities by the drug cartels, the Mexican police, and the US DEA agents in the endless battle against drug trafficking. It hits like a punch in the stomach and remains in the memory long after the credits have rolled.Laura Guerrero (Stephanie Sigman) dreams of being a beauty queen in the Miss Baja California Beauty Pageant, a position that will raise her out of her meager existence as a dress maker in the outskirts of Tijuana where she lives with her little brother and father. She and her best friend Zuzu work their way into the line of women vying for the contest title. After winning entry into the pageant Laura reluctantly agrees to go to a sleazy nightclub with Zuzu. In the club's toilets she witnesses the covert entry of an organized drugs cartel led by Lino Valdez (Noe Hernandez). Lino is finds Laura to be attractive and smart, and allows her to escape. However, when Laura reports her missing friend Zuzu to a corrupt Mexican police officer, she finds herself delivered back into the hands of Lino, and entangled ever deeper in a vicious drugs war. She is used as a mule to transport drug money across the border, returning to full fledged gang war. Lino uses her physically and then keeps his promise to have her crowned Miss Baja California, but the title and the events that follow lead to horrors and alienation Laura never dreamed possible.Writers Mauricio Katz and writer/director Gerardo Naranjo push this expose of just how all consuming the drug traffic problem is at the border. It is terrifying and though Laura seems to be a helpless obeying victim throughout the tale, she represents just how futile it must be to attempt to stand against the atrocious crimes being committed. The power of the film is its willingness to show that both side of the war on drugs - gangs, police, DEA agents, and population - are at fault for allowing this outrage to continue. But business is business and the film hints at how hopeless the situation is. Stephanie Sigman emerges as an actress of importance and her part in this film will remain indelibly burned on the minds of the viewers. We should all see this film. Grady Harp