Miss Bala

Gerardo Naranjo delivers a narcotics thriller with Hollywood pretensions. Entertaining, exciting, rapid, dark, and filled with action and violence.
Like Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic, Miss Bala is situated around the drug wars on the Mexican-American border. Stephanie Sigman plays Laura Guerrero, a young, attractive but also poor woman who would like to be Miss Universe. When she decides to take part in a local beauty contest, she is blackmailed by the drug baron Lino: he promises her she will win, and in exchange she does a few jobs for him. The dream comes true, but the price is high, as Laura becomes increasingly entangled in the criminal circuit.
Inspired by a true story, Naranjo stays close to reality. Just like the modern classic Gomorrah, he provides a raw glimpse of the drug world and packages it as a bloodcurdling, sensational thriller. Making his debut, Sigman presents Laura more as a fearful animal in distress than a thoughtless girl. And as a result, she sinks even deeper into the quagmire.