'Miss Bala': An Explosive and Absorbing Mexican Crime Drama
"Miss Bala” (2011) is an intense Mexican drama-thriller starring Stephanie Sigman as Laura Guerrero, a 23-year old resident of Aguascalientes who dreams of becoming a celebrated beauty queen.
Together with her best friend, Suzu (Lakshmi Picazo), Laura enrolls in the regional “Miss Baja” pageant and is soon overjoyed to learn that they've both qualified—journeying together to the nearby Millennium Club that evening to celebrate. Soon after their arrival, however, the establishment is overrun by members of La Estrella, a fierce drug gang that kills dozens of DEA officers and partygoers in attendance. Laura is taken hostage and soon coerced by the head of La Estrella, Lino (Noé Hernández) into a series of dangerous missions transporting drug money and luring various targets with her stunning looks—all shot with blistering immediacy and feverish intensity.
A propulsive thrill-ride that is somehow based (at least in part) on actual events, ”Miss Bala” is a wildly orchestrated whirlwind that delivers a jarring yet cinematically invigorating perspective on the horrors of the Mexican Drug War.
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