Miss Bala is the only movie of the day on Wednesday and I'm pumped from a fun karate class earlier in the evening. This movie, which promised to be quite exciting, actually dialled down the action and amped up the drama. It was set in Mexico and I was expecting a look inside the brutal drug cartels that are running rampant there. And I got it.....and it was lot more modern and different than how I've pictured it in my mind.
A girl in her 20s decides with her friend to enter a beauty pageant in an attempt to find fame or fortune and escape her poor life making clothes. Laura's friend Suzu meets up with a man at a nightclub who she claims can help them do better in the pageant. Laura's not interested but in trying to extract Suzu, she gets caught up when a gang raids the venue and kills the rival gang. They spare Laura but when she tries to find out what has happened to Suzu the next day, the gang leader takes an interest in her. In exchange for helping her with the pageant, the gang needs her to run some errands for them e.g. park a car full of dead bodies (including a DEA agent) in front of the US embassy, carry drug money across the border, seduce the general to enable them to take him out. Laura has no choice but to comply with the gang's requests because they have her under the gun from the beginning and there seems to be no way to escape.
The most interesting thing about this movie is the contrast of the gang leader's behaviour between casual brutality against his enemies and the relatively tender treatment he shows to Laura, at least in the beginning. The focus on Laura is a sad and shocking tale of a girl who gets drawn into a big mess against her will, based on true events that happened to a former Miss Hispanic America contestant. However for me I would have got more out of seeing things from the gang's point of view. A gripping thriller though. This movie is on again today (Saturday 24 November) at 4pm if you are interested.
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