A young makeup artist named Gloria travels down to Mexico to help a friend win a local beauty pageant. After witnessing a shooting at a dance club, Gloria\u2019s friend is kidnapped and she finds herself caught in the crossfire between the corrupt Mexican law enforcement and a local cartel. Gloria is forced to work with the cartel and its dangerous boss if she hopes to survive and locate her missing friend. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it\u2019s because <\/span>Miss Bala<\/i><\/strong> is (very) loosely based on the Spanish-language film of the same name from 2011. Although it reimagines that film\u2019s plot, the new <\/span>Miss Bala<\/span><\/i> is not a very imaginative take on this particular crime story. <\/span><\/p>\n Gina Rodriguez is assured and engaging in the role of Gloria, a Mexican-American woman who spent much of her life north of the border. A trip to Tijuana to lend her makeup skills to childhood friend and pageant hopeful Suzu (Cristina Rodlo) puts Gloria in an exceedingly dangerous position: Suzu is kidnapped during a local cartel\u2019s attempt to assassinate the chief of police at a dance club, and Gloria \u2013\u00a0having seen the faces of the would-be assassins \u2013\u00a0becomes a liability. Soon after, cartel boss Lino (Ismael Cruz Cordova) kidnaps Gloria and turns her into his \u201cgirlfriend,\u201d forcing her to participate in their illicit and deadly activities. As illustrated by a disturbing run-in with a cartel member\u2019s girlfriend (Aislinn Derbez), Gloria has basically become Lino\u2019s property \u2013 and the only way out is death. Unfortunately, her situation is exacerbated by the involvement of the DEA, which forces Gloria to work as a mole \u2013 a situation that only further illustrates that Gloria\u2019s life is of no consequence to the people on either side of this war. <\/span><\/p>\n Directed by Catherine Hardwicke (<\/span>Thirteen<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Twilight<\/span><\/i>), <\/span>Miss Bala<\/span><\/i> has a solid intersectional perspective with regards to the social politics at play; Gloria\u2019s life is rendered inconsequential and her voice ignored by those in power not only because she is a woman, but because she is a Mexican-American woman \u2013\u00a0a difficult position later elaborated by fellow Mexican-American Lino, who bemoans that he was not Mexican enough for the Mexicans or American enough for the Americans, so he took a different path. Rodriguez is more than capable as Gloria, empowering her character in fascinating and occasionally subtle ways. In her hands, Gloria becomes far more than a helpless pinball bouncing between two sides with no agency of her own. Unfortunately, the script (written by Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer) does not perceive the other women as having similar complexity. Suzu, for instance, is little more than a wide-eyed victim who trembles her way through limited screen time; though her fate is hardly surprising given the film\u2019s setting, it\u2019s disappointing that it hardly treats her like an actual human being \u2013 as if having one fully developed female character is all anyone has time for. Aislinn Derbez\u2019s Isabel fares only slightly better, though her character only exists to show Gloria the horrific consequences should she step out of line. Isabel is essentially a talking punching bag. <\/span><\/p>\n Given Hardwicke\u2019s background and well-established talent, <\/span>Miss Bala<\/span><\/i> feels somewhat disappointing \u2013 certainly a few steps above <\/span>Twilight<\/span><\/i> in terms of its feminist ideas and social consciousness, but rather generic on the whole. Hardwicke\u2019s directorial style \u2013 and the film\u2019s overall plot \u2013 is clearly inspired by <\/span>Point Break<\/span><\/i>, Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s great surfer heist flick, which rightfully earned its place among some of the great crime films of the 20th century. Rodriguez is basically playing the Keanu Reeves role, with Cordova as some weird combo of Patrick Swayze and Lori Petty. There\u2019s an uncomfortable romanticism of Lino, despite his overt displays of misogyny and violence, as if the film is encouraging the audience to want Gloria and Lino to end up together. That <\/span>Point Break<\/span><\/i> influence, however, tells you almost exactly where this movie is heading \u2013\u00a0along with your general knowledge of crime dramas and thrillers from the past 30 years or so. It\u2019s largely predictable, if serviceable stuff that never aspires to be anything beyond a solid flick with a strong female lead \u2013\u00a0that it falls into that reductive trap is perhaps more disappointing than anything else. <\/span><\/p>\n Aside from a few stylistic choices and an engaging performance from Rodriguez, <\/span>Miss Bala<\/span><\/i> is a paint-by-numbers crime drama that lacks any real poignancy or cutting commentary. Rodriguez\u2019s girl power alone generates just enough energy to keep the lights on, but it could use a heck of a lot more. <\/span><\/p>\n A young makeup artist named Gloria travels down to Mexico to help a friend win a local beauty pageant. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":553,"featured_media":11248,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Grade: C<\/span><\/h3>\n
1 hr., 43 min.; rated PG-13 for\u00a0sequences of gun violence, sexual and drug content, thematic material, and language<\/em><\/h5>\n
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