Miss Bala (2012)

Director: Gerardo Naranjo

What this movie accomplishes basically makes it an "issue" movie. It's about the consequences of the Mexican Drug War that has taken hundreds of lives and scared thousands more. Issue movies can be tiresome if not done well because no one likes being preached or lectured to. Miss Bala avoids this problem fairly well (but not completely in my opinion) by focusing on one innocent character and her horrific experiences as she is dragged unwillingly into this war. With this it shows us the consequences the drug war has had on the innocent and how it has ruined and affected the lives of so many innocent people. It's not a revolutionary subject but nonetheless an important one and the fact that the film has seen worldwide attention (it played at Cannes 2011) is a wonderful thing.

The main character of the film who is dragged into the war is a woman whose goal is to get into a beauty pageant. It's a bit cliche and contrived to make the main character a good-looking girl who just wants to look good, but I can't blame Naranjo too much because he was apparently influenced by a real-life story in which a beauty pageant contestant was found to be involved with the cartels. It's also a testament to Naranjo's filmmaking that the movie does not feel as cliche as it could have been. He shies away from easy emotions and instead opts for some truly visceral filmmaking in some tense sequences and some beautiful patient long shots that display the despair and hopelessness of the situation. Naranjo captures the predicament of this girl using her own perspective, including showing us her point of view during shootouts, which puts the audience in the exact same situation as her. Even though the main character is a beauty pageant contestant, the film still succeeds in showing that the victims of the cartels are people just like you and me and that's exactly what a film like this wants to do.

Grade: B