Miss Bala charts the story of Laura Guerrero, whose sole ambition in life is to become the next ‘Miss Baja California’, in the hope of freeing her family from poverty. Guerrero becomes unwittingly involved in the highly powerful drug gangs of Mexico when she experiences a gun-raid at the infamous Millennium Club. In return for being entered into the Miss Baja contest, she carries out an increasingly dangerous range of errands for the gangs and is manipulated by a sleazy drug baron.

The film’s success can be reduced to the quality of its cinematography and acting. Naranjo effectively applies the use of a wide aperture in many shots, which resulted in powerful sequences in which the crowd surrounding Laura appears a mere blur, thus emphasising her increasing isolation.

The acting of Stephanie Sigman (who plays Laura) is a cinematic achievement. This is because she remains truly convincing as a poor Mexican who is trying to help her family escape poverty. This plotline sounds sentimental, cliché even, but with Sigman acting as the protagonist of the film, what we receive instead is something movingas a result of its uncanny rawness.

The problem with the film is its running time. Just under two hours in length, Miss Bala is unfortunately, over-long- in the sense that the tension which is built up so effectively within one hour, reaches its peak soon after and thus, almost dies by the end of the film. This entails that the audience leaves the cinema feeling a little bored, which is a shame because the tension and thus, resultant excitement of the film’s beginning, is a profound achievement.

Miss Bala succeeds as a result of its realism and the affecting believability of the story it charts.