The Reel Review
In this remake of the popular 2011 Mexican crime drama, Gina Rodriguez (Annihilation, Deepwater Horizon) stars as Gloria, a young make-up artist from Los Angeles who is kidnapped by and forced into working for a Mexican drug lord while visiting her best friend Suzu in Tijuana. A misfortunate series of events culminates in her competing in the Miss Baja California Pageant (Guess what?! It’s rigged!) as part of the cartel’s plot to assassinate the local police chief. Think Miss Congeniality, only way more serious, and with a really high body count. Bala is Spanish for bullet, after all.
Despite being saddled with a pretty contrived story, director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, Miss You Already) keeps the action moving at a decent pace thanks to sexy, steely-eyed drug lord Ismael Cruz Cordova (The Good Wife, Mary Queen of Scots) and his band of drug thugs, who are a far cry from her blood-sucking vampires of Twilight. And the ridiculous ending aside, Miss Bala is also extremely entertaining, has some fairly clever twists and a convincing performance by the immensely likable Rodriguez, who really sells it as the machine gun-toting pageant queen. As far as fun, mindless entertainment goes, Miss Bala is a winner.
REEL FACTS
• Miss Bala is VERY loosely based on a real incident, in which 2008’s Miss Sinaloa (and later, Miss Mexico International 2009), Laura Zuñiga, was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck loaded with weapons outside Guadalajara, Mexico. Zuñiga, who was later exonerated but still dethroned of both titles, was the girlfriend of a high-ranking leader of the Juarez Cartel.
• in 2014, Gina Rodriguez won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy or Musical for Jane The Virgin
• 2011’s highly-acclaimed Spanish language Miss Bala went on to become Mexico’s Oscar entry for the Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, but failed to make the shortlist.
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