Miss Bala is a 2011 movie that was Mexico’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. It’s also the name of director Catherine Hardwicke’s (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown) remake starring Gina Rodriguez, the Golden Globe-winning actress best known for playing Jane Villanueva on The CW’s delightful Jane the Virgin. I recommend watching the original Miss Bala, then a few episodes of Jane the Virgin, then Annihilation, which Rodriguez was also in, and then taking a break, because that triple-bill is a lot to process.
In the trailer for Miss Bala above, Rodriguez says things like, “I’m not giving up on my family,” while killing bad dudes. It’s the kind of role she’s been waiting for. “I had been dying to do action for so long, and it’s very difficult because people of color don’t have as many opportunities,” the actress told Entertainment Weekly. “And that’s not even like a ‘Woe is me.’ That’s just a reality, and that’s okay. That has been a reality of mine for many, many, many years. [With Miss Bala], Sony made a big-budget action film with a 95 percent Latinx cast and 95 percent Latinx production crew. It’s revolutionary. It’s just really great to live in these spaces that for so long I didn’t have the opportunity to.” Don’t cross Jane the Virgin, unless if she’s holding a gun while wearing a red dress.
Here’s the official plot synopsis.
Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) finds a power she never knew she had when she is drawn into a dangerous world of cross-border crime. Surviving will require all of her cunning, inventiveness, and strength.
Miss Bala, which also stars Ismael Cruz Córdova, Anthony Mackie, and Matt Lauria, opens on February 1, 2019.
