A cross between Miss Congeniality and City of God,
Miss Bala is a Mexican film about a young woman trying to become a beauty
contest queen of her state whilst being used by a dangerous Mexican drug gang
called La Estrella. However the connection to the 2002 Brazillian classic is
that they are both set in South America and revolve around the drug trade and
the brutal gang wars that surround that business. Miss Bala has its own style, effectively the
film is a series of long takes, perhaps the complete opposite of City of God’s
quick cutting style. Gerardo Naranjo’s camera lingers on our central character,
Laura Guerrero, as she goes deeper into the dangerous day to day missions of a
trigger happy gang of Mexican drug smugglers who disturbingly operate similar
to the police with their walkie talkies and standard procedures for losing the
cops. They are even armed in similar weaponry and body armour of the police who
come across in the film like soldiers fighting a war
The long
takes will begin to test your patience after a while but they do provide some
taut sequences as Laura gets caught in the middle of gun battles with rival
gang bosses and even members of the army. One of the best elements of director Gerardo
Naranjo’s long takes is in the sound; the noise of a car revving up, gang foot
soldiers handing out orders, rapping at a door make you almost jolt
particularly when the shootings begin and Laura is forced to duck and cover
while bullets decimate the objects around her; these are the moments when the
extended shots are used best.
The lack of
characterization means we don’t follow Laura as deeply as we could do, while
the leering and unpredictable gang lord Lino is also a bit underwritten as his
intentions for Laura aren’t ever quite clear. Laura’s futile quest to discover
what happened to her friend who she can’t find after a terrifying nightclub
massacre is also a bit unconvincing.
As Laura
progresses through the beauty pageant and in drug trafficking as a ‘mule’ we
see the stark contrasts of one world of lavish, glitz and glamour as Laura is
bathed in bright white lights at her catwalk ceremonies while the other is one
of living in and out of hum Vs, being held hostage by the heavily armed gang;
even in her own home.
On the whole
the film is a suspenseful thriller as Laura is given random instructions,
constantly wondering what is next in store for her. The long takes help us empathise
with Laura’s mental and physical state, as over the course of a few days she is
dragged deeper into the gang’s issues. We feel her exhaustion as she balances a
schedule from being under intense fire from police convoys to getting glammed
up and shoved onto a catwalk. In one of the film’s best moments, Laura is
unable to smile and breaks down during her crucial question and answer stage of
the contest as only an hour before she was surrounded by flying bullet, burning
cars and dying gang members.
Probably not
the strongest candidate for the Best Foreign Language Oscar entry, but it is worthy
of nomination for its audacious plot, taut sequences and a general air of dread,
unsure of what cruel and disturbing form of violence might occur next.
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