Miss Bala (2011)

87% of critics liked it
(62 reviews)
66% of users liked it
(3,595 ratings)

Miss Bala tells the story of Laura, a young woman whose aspirations of becoming a beauty queen turn against her, delivering her into the hands of a gang that's terrorizing northern Mexico. Although Laura succeeds in winning the beauty queen crown, her experiences as an unwilling participant in… More Miss Bala tells the story of Laura, a young woman whose aspirations of becoming a beauty queen turn against her, delivering her into the hands of a gang that's terrorizing northern Mexico. Although Laura succeeds in winning the beauty queen crown, her experiences as an unwilling participant in Mexico's violent war leave her shaken and transformed. -- (C) Fox International Productions

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Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 53 min.
Directed By: Gerardo Naranjo
Genres: Drama, Action & Adventure

In Theaters: Jan 20, 2012 Limited
On DVD: Feb 28, 2012
Studio: Fox International

Critic Reviews

Peter Howell, Toronto Star
Naranjo is unflinching in his determination not to serve up mindless entertainment.
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
Maybe the film doesn't add up to quite as much as its talented director, Gerardo Naranjo, seems to have hoped, but it is tense and propulsive.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Miss Bala is full of virtuoso single-take tracking shots and over-the-shoulder perspectives that effectively convey a sense of menace and momentum.
Loren King, Boston Globe
Naranjo offers a grim subject with neither flash nor sentiment. It is a sober film done with style.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
This strange and eerie noir is more a collection of knockout scenes than a fully realized story.
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger
"Miss Bala" can't quite engage. It fires at the target. It makes a lot of noise. But it never quite hits the bull's eye.
Mark Pfeiffer, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema
Naranjo numbs sensation to make his points about the drug war's damage to Mexico, turning Miss Bala into a thriller from the dissociative first person perspective.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...an audacious yet hopelessly uninvolving art-house thriller that peters out significantly in the buildup to its anticlimactic finale.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
Sloppy writing and storytelling make the near two hour film seem far longer.
Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews
...it's clear Naranjo has a lot on his mind about the state his country has fallen into. If only he had a clearer narrative.
Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Daily News
You feel the movie's authenticity, throughout the ordeal that leaves Laura brutalized, terrified, confused, abandoned, with nowhere to turn.
Patrick Z. McGavin, Boston Phoenix
Sigman's tremulous, vivid performance anchors the movie. It's a knockout.
Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest
Provides a discomfortingly intimate glimpse into the complexities of the Mexican-U.S. drug trade. "Miss Bala" shouldn't be written off by adventurous moviegoers.
Kent Turner, Film-Forward.com
The paranoia is contagious
Vadim Rizov, Boxoffice Magazine
The topical subject may draw larger-than-usual audiences, as will the undeniably formidable technical achievements.

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Nate Z

Miss Bala (Mexico's foreign film entry for 2011) is an unwavering, startling, and deeply tense movie about one woman's tragic and unwilling association with a powerful drug cartel. Laura (Stephanie Sigman) wants to be the next Miss Baja California, but she's unwittingly… More
Miss Bala (Mexico's foreign film entry for 2011) is an unwavering, startling, and deeply tense movie about one woman's tragic and unwilling association with a powerful drug cartel. Laura (Stephanie Sigman) wants to be the next Miss Baja California, but she's unwittingly pulled into a life of crime after she witnesses a gang hit. The cartel ensures that Laura wins the beauty pageant and becomes a courier for them. The movie takes a Lars von Trier approach to storytelling, putting its heroine through a torture chamber of anxiety and terror. This woman only wants to escape the hell she has accidentally found herself a part of, but every attempt to escape, be it going to the police or confessing assassination plots to the intended targets, gets her corralled back into the fray. For Laura, there is no escape. The movie packs a near-constant surge of paranoia, as we fear that at any time something awful will happen. In fact it's usually only a matter of time. Laura is more a symbol of the collateral damage of Mexico's billion-dollar drug war than a character, and she kind of becomes a numb zombie by the movie's latter half, perhaps accepting her doomed fate. Director Gerado Naranjo favors long unwinding takes and handheld cameras, which add a gritty realism and sense of compounding dread to the picture. The movie has an unflinching level of realism to it that makes it all the more haunting, stripping the romanticism from a life of crime. Much like Italy's heralded crime film Gomorrah, this bleak but impassioned movie shows the inescapable tentacles of organized crime and gives a face to innocents caught in the middle. Miss Bala is a testament to the hidden toll of a nation at war with itself. Nate's Grade: B+
Anthony L

Miss Bala is quite a misleading film due to how it was publicised. It's not better or worse than I expected though but it is more brutal and shocking than I'd anticipated. It's pretty provocative but it needs to be in order to tell the story. Its real strength is when… More
Miss Bala is quite a misleading film due to how it was publicised. It's not better or worse than I expected though but it is more brutal and shocking than I'd anticipated. It's pretty provocative but it needs to be in order to tell the story. Its real strength is when it puts the viewer in the position of our protagonist, it reminded me of Samuel Maoz's film Lebanon in some scenes, the tension and anticipation levels are high, making it a very entertaining thriller. It always stays true to form though, never once sugar-coating the situation in gang-law territory, even the relatively happy ending will leave you feeling uneasy. A great film, it's just a shame they've done a poor job of publicising it.
Walter M

In "Miss Bala," Laura(Stephanie Sigman), a 23-year old shop girl, and her friend Suzu(Lakshmi Picazo) sign up for a beauty pageant, Miss Baja California. That night instead of shopping for a dress, Suzu drags her friend along to a nightclub. Bored, Laura wanders off where… More
In "Miss Bala," Laura(Stephanie Sigman), a 23-year old shop girl, and her friend Suzu(Lakshmi Picazo) sign up for a beauty pageant, Miss Baja California. That night instead of shopping for a dress, Suzu drags her friend along to a nightclub. Bored, Laura wanders off where she is found by a gunman who asks her questions about who is inside, gives her a little money and tells her to get lost. Well, not before Laura can get Suzu out but they become separated once the shooting starts and Laura makes it to safety out a window. The following morning Suzu is still missing and Laura does the sensible thing in going to a policeman. But instead of taking her to a police station, he takes her to Lino(Noe Hernandez), the criminal leader, who asks her what she knows before inquiring if she can drive a car. There are statistics given at the end of "Miss Bala" about how many people have died in the drug wars in northern Mexico. Now, using a beauty pageant may seem like a screwy way at first to get there but according to the literature, a beauty queen is supposed to represent her subjects and Laura does, if you mean her subjects include those trapped in between the authorities and the criminals. The movie is on neither side, as it paints the authorities as corrupt and in cold blooded fashion Lino lets the DEA know that they are not welcome in Mexico. All of which is seen through Laura's eyes as she provides a ground level view of what goes on around her for the viewer, as she becomes little more than a commodity to the criminals with her body(notice how it is described, by the way) used and abused, with little choice in her actions. Even with large amounts of money on the table, she is not really tempted, either, with the exception of a scene in an upscale dress shop. The most important lesson in all of this is to always listen to your parents.
Alec B

What I like most is that the audience possess the exact same amount of information as the central character does from beginning to end, which gives the film an uneasy spontaneous energy that keeps you transfixed on the action. It pushes the limits of credibility at several points, but… More
What I like most is that the audience possess the exact same amount of information as the central character does from beginning to end, which gives the film an uneasy spontaneous energy that keeps you transfixed on the action. It pushes the limits of credibility at several points, but that doesn't hurt the film enough to be a serious problem. As a thriller its quite nerve wracking and as a metaphor for how innocent Mexican citizens are used as pawns in the drug war between the various gangs and the DEA its effective.
Christopher H

With tons of long take tracking shots and a subtle performance from Stephanie Sigman, Miss Bala displays the height of a war between a Mexican gang and the authorities through the docile eyes of a wanna-be beauty queen. There is a deep seeded humor in this film, which escalates… More
With tons of long take tracking shots and a subtle performance from Stephanie Sigman, Miss Bala displays the height of a war between a Mexican gang and the authorities through the docile eyes of a wanna-be beauty queen. There is a deep seeded humor in this film, which escalates throughout the film. Had there been better casting, this film could have been exceptional.
Nick S

The film holds a good story, but the set pieces are conventional, and the cinematography can be pretty messy at times. The political ideals that the film takes grasp on aren't very familiar to a widespread audience, and the movie never seems to make it clear as to what is going… More
The film holds a good story, but the set pieces are conventional, and the cinematography can be pretty messy at times. The political ideals that the film takes grasp on aren't very familiar to a widespread audience, and the movie never seems to make it clear as to what is going on in this country. There's war. A lot of countries are at war. Plus, the concluding predicament of our character is rather empty and almost not believable. I was rather skeptical about the whole approach, and wondering if this was a character study, given the films attention to her mental state after the gang wars and whatnot, or a call out to others, expressing the violence of the area. The themes seem muddled, and I guess it could be both, but as far as story-telling and filmmaking goes, it's a foreign matinee.
Daniel P

Review soon.
Daisy M

I could not rate Miss Bala higher because for me the film started to show some real character development problems in its late half period. The film was quite watchable but not deep. Laura was an ordinary Mexican girl who wanted to participate in the beauty pageant Miss Baja Mexico.… More
I could not rate Miss Bala higher because for me the film started to show some real character development problems in its late half period. The film was quite watchable but not deep. Laura was an ordinary Mexican girl who wanted to participate in the beauty pageant Miss Baja Mexico. Unfortunately, she got herself in the middle of a drug cartel war where she was taken as hostage and was forced to participate in their illegal activities.Laura's personality failed, because despite several good opportunities, she never made an effort to escape.Her character was dead, as I was wondering what the heck was wrong with her? Was she in shock or a Zombie or was she just stupid? Maybe her motivation to do as she's told came from her desire to protect her family from these animals? But it was never showed that she was being threatened in that way. The film did send a powerful a message of despair and showed a society of some stupid puppets ruled by criminals and corrupt officials with no way out.