Miss Bala
A Film By Gerardo
Naranjo
Mexico
The
clash of situations is at the heart of Miss
Bala, a Mexican crime saga from director Gerardo Naranjo. Laura, a young
woman who has been forced to help a powerful drug lord, watches as a DEA agent
is run over, dragged through the street, and hung over a highway. The drug
lords then take her to a fixed beauty pageant, where the bright lights
practically blind her and the atmosphere promises youth, beauty, and love,
which couldn’t clash more with the men controlling her lives.
But
clash is also one of the fatal flaws of this gorgeously shot but somewhat
hollow film. Mr. Naranjo made a huge splash at the New York Film Festival in
2008 with I’m Gonna Explode, a unique
exploration of youth and class with the powerful energy adapted from Godard’s Pierret Le Fou. Here, Mr. Naranjo is in
somewhat stripping down the crime thriller to its essentials—another NYFF hit, Gomorrah, might be this film’s distant
cousin—though it indulges through its camera. The outcome is a somewhat mixed
result that may interest audiences with its bizarre but true story of a beauty
queen involved in the drug war, but rarely finds a uniquely statement on the terrible situation.
