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Miss Bala

Mexico

2011

113 Min
Color
2.35:1
Spanish
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
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DIR Gerardo Naranjo

EXEC Geminiano Pineda, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna

PROD Pablo Cruz

SCR Gerardo Naranjo, Mauricio Katz

DP Mátyás Erdély

CAST Stephanie Sigman, Noé Hernández, Lakshmi Picazo, Leonor Victorica, Irene Azuela, José Yenque, James Ruso

ED Gerardo Naranjo

PROD DES Ivonne Fuentes

MUSIC Emilio Kauderer

SOUND Pablo Lach, Salvador Felix

Cannes (Un Certain Regard), Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), New York, San Sebastián (Horizontes Latinos): Horizontes Award - Special Mention, Vancouver (Cinema of Our Time), Helsinki (Politics!), London (Film on the Square), Chicago (Competition), Mill Valley (World Cinema), AFI FEST (Special Screenings), Rotterdam (Spectrum), CPH PIX (Latin Beats)

Synopsis

In Mexico, a lawless country, Laura, a young aspiring beauty queen finds her dream turned against her when she unwillingly gets involved with a criminal group at war.

Director

Original

Gerardo Naranjo

Gerardo Naranjo grew up in Salamanca, Mexico, and studied at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. After making the short film Black Dog (01), he earned an M.F.A. at the American Film Institute. Upon completing his award-winning thesis film, The Last Attack of the Beast (02), he went on to direct the features Malachance (03), Drama/Mex (06), the Festival title I’m Gonna Explode (08), Revolución (10) and Miss Bala (11). —TIFF 

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FailedImitator

16Jun13

Incredible cinematography though.

Picture of FailedImitator

FailedImitator

16Jun13

Poor Laura just can' catch a break.

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Jerry Johnson

12Jun13

Nice to see Naranjo bounce back from the horrid Voy a Explotar, but I fear he'll never again capture the magic of Drama/Mex.

Picture of Nelson Núñez

Nelson Núñez

20May13

Una película estilizada, hipnótica y absorbente sobre la violencia generada por el narcotráfico en México. La fotografía y la cámara son soberbias.

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Notebook Reviews: Gerardo Naranjo's "Miss Bala"

By Marie-Pierre Duhamel on January 20, 2012

Gerardo Naranjo’s “neo-melo” Miss Bala is a relentless portrait of a society of violence and corruption.

read article
W184

Daily Briefing. Film Comment, Jan/Feb 2012

By David Hudson on January 10, 2012

Also: The latest indefinite word on whether or not David Fincher will make The Girl Who Played with Fire.

read article
W184

Daily Briefing. AFI Awards and Variety's 10 Directors to Watch

By David Hudson on December 12, 2011

Also: The video games and songs of 2011.

read article
W184

NYFF 2011. Gerardo Naranjo's "Miss Bala"

By David Hudson on October 2, 2011

In the wake of the raves from Cannes, some of the reviews coming out of Toronto and New York may come as a surprise.

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W184

Movie Poster of the Week: The Posters of the 49th New York Film Festival

By Adrian Curry on September 30, 2011

A look at the posters for the films in the main slate of this year’s New York Film Festival.

read article
W184

Movie Poster of the Week: The Best of the Rest of Cannes 2011

By Adrian Curry on June 3, 2011

As I’ve mentioned before, movie posters are not much in evidence around the theaters of Cannes. One striking exception though was this

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W184

Cannes 2011. Cannes Questionnaires #1: Gerardo Naranjo

By Daniel Kasman on May 17, 2011

The first part of a video interview series from Cannes by myself and Ryland Walker Knight.

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W184

Cannes 2011. Rushes: "Restless", "Miss Bala"

By Daniel Kasman on May 15, 2011

Gus van Sant attempts to rectify the expressions and evocations of his high-art re-invention, the so-called "death trilogy" (Gerry, Elephant

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W184

Cannes 2011. Gerardo Naranjo's "Miss Bala"

By David Hudson on May 14, 2011

Updated through 5/21. To follow up on yesterday's "Snapshot" from Marie-Pierre Duhamel, a roundup of what, in this case, we might as well

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W184

Cannes 2011. Snapshots: Gerardo Naranjo's "Miss Bala" ("Miss Bullet")

By Marie-Pierre Duhamel on May 13, 2011

In his second film Voy a explotar (I'm Going to Explode, which premiered at Venice Mostra in 2009) Gerardo Naranjo paid a double, vibrant

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Lists

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Reviews

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MISS BALA SHOOTS ITSELF IN THE FOOT

By Burt on June 8, 2012
Upon hearing of this film I immediately wanted to see it. Now that I have, I found myself very disappointed with the result. It starts out very interesting, a young girl named Laura, at home very much…

El azar de los daños colaterales

By Rafael Paz on September 15, 2011

El azar conduce nuestras vidas, ayudado por una fuerza superior que no permite emanciparnos de nuestro destino. Es el mensaje que parece mandar Gerardo Naranjo (Voy a explotar, 2008) con su nueva película…  read review

Miss Bala - Cannes 2011

By Duncan Gray on May 14, 2011

A young woman enters a beauty pageant and (follow me here) ends up drawn into the nightmarish world of Mexico’s drug wars. If nothing else, consider this a magnificent stylistic triumph. The director…  read review

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Gerardo Naranjo at AFI Silver in MD Oct 7th

2 posts by 2 people over 1 year ago