Miss Bala (2011)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 62
Fresh: 54 | Rotten: 8
Miss Bala's subject is loaded enough, but the frantic and muscular filmmaking puts this movie in a whole new league.
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 24
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 1
Miss Bala's subject is loaded enough, but the frantic and muscular filmmaking puts this movie in a whole new league.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 4,046
My Rating
Movie Info
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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Cast
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Stephanie Sigman
Laura Guerrero -
Irene Azuela
Jessica Berlanga -
Noe Hernandez
Lino Valdez -
James Russo
Jimmy -
Jose Yenque
Kike Camara
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All Critics (63) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (8) | DVD (1)
Naranjo is unflinching in his determination not to serve up mindless entertainment.
Top CriticMaybe 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.
Miss Bala is full of virtuoso single-take tracking shots and over-the-shoulder perspectives that effectively convey a sense of menace and momentum.
Naranjo offers a grim subject with neither flash nor sentiment. It is a sober film done with style.
This strange and eerie noir is more a collection of knockout scenes than a fully realized story.
"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.
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.
...an audacious yet hopelessly uninvolving art-house thriller that peters out significantly in the buildup to its anticlimactic finale.
Sloppy writing and storytelling make the near two hour film seem far longer.
...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.
You feel the movie's authenticity, throughout the ordeal that leaves Laura brutalized, terrified, confused, abandoned, with nowhere to turn.
Sigman's tremulous, vivid performance anchors the movie. It's a knockout.
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.
The paranoia is contagious
The topical subject may draw larger-than-usual audiences, as will the undeniably formidable technical achievements.
Audience Reviews for Miss Bala
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Laura Guerrero: My dream is to represent the beautiful woman of my state.
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Nate's Grade: B+