EISENSTEIN IN GUANAJUATO: 25th Anniversary Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival 2015 - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Greenaway dallies with biopic like some Ken Russell wannabe.

Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015)
Dir. Peter Greenaway
Starring: Elmer Bäck, Luis Alberti

Review By Greg Klymkiw

This cellar-dwelling Ken Russell wannabe biopic of Sergei Eisenstein, the famed Soviet filmmaking genius and chief cinematic propagandist for Communist and Stalinist totalitarianism is replete with a wide variety of stunning visuals, but really does nothing to cast a light upon either its subject's work, career and sexuality.

How much of this dull, overwrought Greenaway nonsense you can take will mostly be determined by just how much Peter Greenaway you can hack. All others can stay at home and rent some Ken Russell movies instead.

No matter how outrageously rife with historical deviations (and nutty visuals) Russell's biopics were, I always loved how he plunged to the very roots of his subjects' artistry and not only captured the spirit of the work, but did so by presenting how the said work inspired him. Russell's films were as personal as they were cheekily respectful, not as oxymoronic as you might think, since his delightfully perverse sense of humour added the necessary frissons to reinterpret and/or re-imagine the artists' work.

It was a delicate balance and one Russell didn't always successfully achieve, but his best films were genuinely insightful, thought-provoking and yes, outrageous. For example, I always loved Russell's interpretation of Gustav Mahler's conversion from Judaism to Christianity in Mahler when he created the astonishing set piece of the title character leaping through flaming hoops adorned with the Star of David as Cosima Wagner in pseudo Nazi regalia, complete with what appear to be chrome hot pants, cracks a circus whip like some Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Valkyrie.

A close second to this pantheon of Russell's loving insanity is, for me, the sequence in The Music Lovers when Richard (Dr. Kildare) Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky, explodes the heads off everyone in his life with cannon balls with the 1812 Overture raging on the soundtrack.

I will accept all this heartily.

Alas, Greenaway delivers the equivalent of a few wet farts in this tradition.

Nothing so inspired occurs in Eisenstein in Guanajuato. Greenaway chooses to focus on the time Eisenstein spent in Mexico and essentially squandered his opportunity to make an epic feature film which Stalin himself gave his blessings to. Most of the film is devoted to Elmer Bäck's mildly entertaining nutty performance as he spouts endless bits of florid dialogue, discovers the joys of shoeshines, the heavenly experience of showering (as he cocks his buttocks saucily and swings his dinky about with abandon) and, of course, sodomy.

Yes, Greenaway does not disappoint here. Sergei's anal deflowering is genuinely worth the price of admission. Alas this delicious set piece is buffeted by far too much flouncing about, presented with triple-paned homages to both Eisenstein and Abel Gance until our mad hero is tossed out of Mexico, but not before donning a death masque and racing into the infinite behind the wheel of a roadster.

Heavy, man.

I'm not sure what I was supposed to take away from any of this movie in terms of what made Eisenstein tick nor, frankly, what Greenaway himself admires about one of the true masters of film art. All I really know is that Greenaway continues to make "purty pitchers" and has it in him to craft one lollapalooza of a sodomy scene.

Well, maybe that's enough.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: ** 2 Stars for the movie, **** for the sodomy

Eisenstein in Guanajuato is playing at the Inside Out 2015 Toronto LGBT Film Festival. For further info, please visit the festival's website by clicking HERE.

WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL? Review By Greg Klymkiw - Highly acclaimed by the Film Corner

America is so precious about its border
it kills thousands of people per year.
These are dirt-poor migrant workers.
They'll do work American WhiteTrash
won't do, yet they're murdered.
WHY?

HERE COMES THE DEVIL - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Creepy Mexican Horror Shocker the whole family will love.

DILF ALERT! DILF ALERT! DILF ALERT!

Here Comes the Devil (2013) ***1/2
Dir. Adrián García Bogliano
Starring: Francisco Barreiro, Laura Caro, Alan Martinez, Michele Garcia

Review By Greg Klymkiw

All those who object to gratuitous lesbo action during the first five minutes of a horror movie, please raise your hands. Nobody? Good. As a respected Canadian film producer born in Eastern Europe (whom I shall allow to remain nameless) once said to an incredulous young indie filmmaker, "The man - he likes to see the woman with the woman, and the woman - she likes to see the woman with the woman, too."

Now, all those who object to some utterly wicked (and gratuitous) bloodshed following said lesbo action in the aforementioned horror movie, please raise your hands. Nobody? Even better. You're now ready to see Adrián García Bogliano's super-creepy Mexican shocker Here Comes the Devil.

Après the aforementioned gratuitous lesbo action and bloodshed (gorgeously photographed, I might add), you're sitting in the cinema wondering - okay, are the filmmakers ever going to be able to top this one? Well, yes and no, but good goddamn they've sure grabbed you by the short and curlies and now you can't get your eyes off the screen even if you tried. (Though, I suppose you could poke your eyes out, but that would kinda be stupid, eh?)

Where the film takes us from here is mega-Creepville, for director Bogliano slows down the pace in all the right ways and before we know it, we're plunged into the lives of a family driving through the hills near Tijuana. Mom and Dad (Francisco Barreiro, Laura Caro) pull over to a roadside stop and agree to let their kids (Alan Martinez, Michele Garcia) explore the nearby caves. This allows the happy couple an opportunity to get in a little backseat bouncing like in their youth and the kiddies get to experience both nature and the local colour. (Thankfully, the family is not passing through Ensenada - the wildlife in some of the more dubious nightspots involves donkeys. 'Nuff said.)

It might have been handy, however, had everyone known about the local legends surrounding the caves. Mom and Dad end up falling into a comfy post-coital snooze while their kids fall into some mighty mysterious goings-on. Thankfully, after some harrowing worries regarding the disappearance of their children, the kids reappear - safe and sound.

Or so everyone thinks.

What follows is utterly horrendous - in more ways than one, and if things don't quite plunge into gratuitous territory, we're not at all disappointed because the movie is genuinely compelling and scary in ways reminiscent of the very best horror films that employ atmosphere and psychological terror. This is not, however, to say that things don't spiral into total sickness. They do. There's no need to spoil this for anyone, save to say that we're served up a number of tasty morsels guaranteed to invoke both gooseflesh and possibly even regurgitation. A check-list of sickness includes some barf-inspirational boffins, some superbly sickening blood letting and a very nice shower scene. 'Nuff said.

(Years ago when I ran my own art cinema in the 'Peg, I used to hand out air sickness bags for certain movies and encourage patrons to vomit. Alas, far too many of them didn't use the air sickness bags and this poor kid who worked for me, one very hard-working, sweet-faced Paulo Rodriguez, was sadly forced to clean up the spillage. Still, it was a great promotion which I tied-in to a heavy metal radio station. I urge Colin Geddes at the Royal Theatre where Here Comes the Devil opens theatrically in Toronto to consider a similar stunt. I can give him Paulo's phone number, or he can just hire my cousin Peter's fine cleaning company Bee-Clean to do the job.)

It's great to see a movie like this is playing theatrically. Far too many terrific genre films these days go straight to home entertainment formats and while this is fine for second helpings, collectors and lazy assholes who don't want to leave home, the rest of us prefer our shocks on the big screen. Here Comes the Devil, though not quite in the same classic territory of the great Val Lewton RKO thrillers, takes a similar cue and keeps us rooted in the more human elements of the story - here, it's family dynamics. Where it deviates, of course, is that we get to have our cake and it too - lots of creepy atmospheric chills, garnished with a few delightful dollops of sex and violence.

An unbeatable combination, to be sure, but it helps that Bogliano helms the proceedings with a sure hand and elicits a clutch of fine performances - especially from the gorgeous Laura Caro as the decidedly concerned (and mouth-wateringly sexy) Mom.

MILF ALERT! MILF ALERT! MILF ALERT! MILF ALERT! MILF ALERT!

"Here Comes the Devil" is a Magnet picture distributed in Canada via the visionary VSC and making its theatrical debut at the wonderful Royal Theatre in Toronto's Little Italy. Hopefully Johnny Lombardi's ghost will be present.

WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL? - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Klymkiw HOT DOCS 2013 HOT PICK

Who is Dayani Cristal? (2013) ****
Dir. Mark Silver
Starring and Produced By: Gael Garcia Bernal

Review By Greg Klymkiw

I really don't get why America has always been so precious about its border with Mexico. Purportedly, the big reason is to make sure that "furriners" don't steal jobs from good, hardworking Americans. This, of course, is a big joke. No matter how poor they are, the vast majority of unemployed America's potential work force refuse to do the jobs illegal migrant workers south of Mexico's border are willing to do. In fact, a big part of America's economy would be deeper in the crapper than it already is without the underground workforce. Those who refuse to admit it are either lying or ignorant.

And yet, year after year, decade upon decade, America has waged war against virtually incalculable numbers of people who try to cross their borders - not to steal, not to make trouble, not to be a drain on the system - but to work. America is good at waging war. It's what keeps the rich getting richer and the poor to get poorer. It's how the rich dumb down its population. Even worse, it's how the rich cull the population while at the same time exploiting other countries for financial gain. Perhaps America's power brokers are hoping that the dwindling middle class in America will get so desperate that they'll be the ones to take all the jobs Americans (at least for now) refuse to take.

Whatever the reasons - and you can bet the official reasons are spurious as all get out - thousands upon thousands of "illegals" are captured, incarcerated and deported with untold millions of dollars spent on enforcing this perverse form of protectionism which is both racist and ultimately, ineffective. They keep coming. They're poor, they have no work and America has plenty for them to do.

An alarming number of these "illegals" die. Some are robbed and beaten to death. Most drop dead of thirst and hunger in the vast desert wilderness between the Mexican border and civilization.

Who is Dayani Cristal? is about the dead and I have to admit, this is conceivably one of the saddest and most infuriating films I've ever seen. (Curiously, one other cinematic wrist-slasher, Liz Marshall's The Ghosts in Our Machine, also appears at this year's Hot Docs Film Festival).

Working with fine writing by Mark Monroe, filmmaker Mark Silver's stunning, harrowing and genuinely great film is a superbly directed feature documentary that gives us a tale of one such "illegal" found rotting in the blazing sun of the deadly Sonora Desert in Friendly Arizona - a state where many of the (mostly unemployed) American White Trash are the first to complain about migrant workers stealing jobs that they themselves wouldn't even begin to think of taking.

The dead man has no I.D. He is a "John Doe". His body will remain on ice until a dogged American forensic team exhausts every possible avenue to match a name with the body based upon any clues they can find. The doctor and his team who do this work display the sort of compassion that makes one, thankfully, realize just how wonderful the American people are and can be - that many are sick and tired of the horrendous totalitarian policies of the rich - and that if there was eventually some way to break the horrendous attempts to dumb-down most of the country's population that maybe, just maybe, there will be a possibility of returning the country to the principles of the founding fathers.

Until then, "illegals" are treated worse than cattle sent to the slaughterhouse.

The film follows two roads. One involves the attempts to identify the man's body - he has one arcane clue - a tattoo that reads "Dayani Cristal". If the teams can - somehow - find out who or what "Dayani Cristal" is, then they might be that much closer to putting a name to the body and returning it to his family.

The other path involves star and Producer, the dreamy heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal who takes to the open road - travelling with other migrants from Honduras through Guatemala, Mexico and Arizons - hitting the likeliest route, places and activities the dead man would have. These sequences are a brilliant hybrid of drama and documentary that seem less "recreation" or "dramatization", but a genuine journey. The sequences include some of the most hair-raising sequences on moving boxcars I've ever seen, and unless I'm blind, it does not appear as Bernal is using a stunt double.

Though we feel we know what the answer to the mystery will be, it is impossible to be less than enthralled with both the journeys taken by the forensic team and Bernal. It's the roads taken by both that supply us with the reality that faces destitute foreign migrant workers every single day.

And though it IS a film that makes us sad and infuriated, we're strangely elated by the touches of humanity along the way.

The work of politicians and their bureaucratic minions on behalf of the rich are faceless, but it's the faces and spirit of those who struggle on that ultimately move us. That said, there is a sense that the real free and brave of America are those without freedom and whose only real wealth is their bravery.

This is highly polished filmmaking at every level, but it's also indicative of what is still important and truthful about great cinema. And, for that matter, America.

"Who is Dayani Cristal?" is playing at the 2013 Hot Docs Film Festival. For showtimes and ticket information, please visit the festival website HERE.

Canadian Film Centre World Wide Short Film Festival 2012 Toronto - Opening Night Gala: Award Winners From Around The World - Reviewed By Greg Klymkiw

Opening night gala presentations at most film festivals are usually stacked with inoffensive fare that's soon forgotten once the festival really gets underway. The Canadian Film Centre's Worldwide Short Film Festival has not been immune to this, but traditionally the programme includes a carefully selected group of award winners from around the world. Awards, of course, do not ALWAYS ensure great cinema, but the beauty of an evening of short films is that there's bound to be some genuinely great stuff. Judging from the 2012 Opening Night Gala lineup, the pickings out in Award Winner Land must have been mighty slim. Read and weep. (Though I can assure you it only goes up and in some cases, WAY up during the festival, after this opening night of - ahem - winners.)

Luminaris (2011) dir. Juan Pablo Zaramella
RATING:**1/2
Review By Greg Klymkiw
Equation de Klymkiw: Magic Realism + Whimsy = (for this fella) Explusion of Bile (though, for many others, delight).
The craft (I hesitate to use the word "artistry") in this digitally animated short is undeniable. This annoyingly predictable tale of a creative soul and his babe-o-licious co-worker hemmed into a dehumanized cubicle is, like most whimsical magical realism, almost sickeningly jaunty. The couple, along with hundreds of other toilers in an environment that inspires homogeneity rather than imagination, eventually break free of the shackles of bureaucratic efficiency in order to create a light from within that offers both freedom and love. If you're easily dazzled by eye-candy, but precious little else, you'll gobble this up. The rest of us can regurgitate it and/or file under "forgettable". Winner of the Annecy 2011 - Audience Award & Fipresci Award, Special Jury Prize - Seoul Int. Cartoon and Animation Fest

Dripped (2010) dir. Léo Verrier
RATING:***
Review By Greg Klymkiw
L'équation de Klymkiw: French Movie + Whimsy + Jackson Pollock Tribute = Good Intentions & Mild Entertainment Value. Superb craft is on display in this not-so-sickeningly whimsical animated short and a pretty cool idea to boot. An art thief blessed with a unique gift involving two of my favourite things - ingestion and regurgitation - scurries about Gay Par-ee in the 1950s plying his trade in a most unique and genuinely surprising way. It's basically a one-note joke with a decent punchline, but thematically it has a couple of layers and offers eye candy, a morsel of food for thought and a few decent laughs. Winner of Best Animated Short, Sitges, Special Prize, Krok IAFF

Armadingen (2011) dir. Matthias Schulz
RATING:**1/2
Review By Greg Klymkiw

L'équation de Klymkiw: Armageddon + Predictable Humanity = Sickly-Sweet Feel-Goodery. This live-action (and yes, whimsical) German drama about an old farmer beleaguered by his gruff wife with endless chores presents a by-the-numbers arc involving a pudgy couple in the rut of familiarity and how an impending disaster draws them closer together. Hubby tries his damnedest to shelter his harridan hausfrau from the inevitable armageddon and they gradually use their final hours on Earth to experience the joys of another form of familiarity - their love. There's nothing dreadful about this movie, but within two or three minutes I knew, almost beat-for-beat where it was going to end up and when it got there, I wasn't sure it was all that worth it - even at a mere 23 minutes. Undiscriminating audiences might be delighted and moved, but for this fella, the apocalypse has been done to death and with fond memories of Stanley Kramer's On The Beach, Don McKellar's Last Night and Lars Von Trier's Melancholia dancing in my brain, this was Armageddon Lite. The direction is certainly competent and the performances solid. Official Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.

Grandmothers (2011) dir. Afarin Eghbal
RATING:****
Review By Greg Klymkiw

L'équation de Klymkiw: Supreme Artistry + Thematic Complexity + Perfect, Simple Narrative = A Great Film That's Actually About Something. A Grandmother's voice speaks for all the grandmothers of Argentina in this delicate, heart-breaking trip through rooms that carry artifacts from an earlier age - haunted by the ghosts and memories of both happier times and sad. Gorgeously lit, designed and visually composed, Afarin Eghbal delivers a simple, yet stunning (and ultimately layered) film. Using live-action images via stop-motion-styled animation, this is a genuinely great film - short or otherwise. Telling what's ultimately a horrendous tale of one segment of "the disappeared" of Argentina, it earns its rays of hope honestly. Eghbal creates cinematic poetry of the highest order and it's a perfect demonstration of film's great potential to render narrative with the poetic qualities inherent in the medium.Winner of Encounters - Honourable Mention - Best Doc , Austin - Best Documentary Short

Trotteur (2011) dir. Arnaud Brisebois, Francis Leclerc
RATING: **
Review By Greg Klymkiw

L'équation de Klymkiw: Quebecois Artiness + High Production Value = Dullsville. Typically glossy high production value inherent in so many Quebecois films, an annoyingly soulful score, stunning period detail, a pseudo-Chariots-of-Fire slow motion race (between man and machine, no less - BIG IDEAS, EH?) and arty flashbacks to childhood that yields a fine calling card for television drama or a pretentious Quebecois feature replete with typically glossy high production values inherent in so many Quebecois films, an annoyingly soulful score, stunning period detail and arty flashbacks to childhood. In Official Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and Canadian Premiere.

The Fisherman (2011) dir. Samantha Pineda Sierra
RATING: *
Review By Greg Klymkiw

L'équation de Klymkiw: Magic Realism + Day of the Dead = Take One Guess. As an old fisherman clambers into his boat and rows out to the wide open spaces, a little part of me thought, "Ah, perhaps we'll get some fabulous tale steeped in neorealism with a dash - only a dash, mind you - of existentialism. An old man and the sea. Arthritic hands. The meticulous detail with which he must continue to practise his livelihood, his craft - nay, his art." The phonograph in the boat should have given me a clue to the contrary. When he uses an old photograph as bait, my heart sunk. "Oh Christ!", I thought, "He's going to fish for his memories." I think you know the rest. On a positive note, it's not whimsical - at least not too much. Winner of an Honorable Mention, Morelia.

The Elaborate End of Robert Ebb (2011) dir. FX Goby, Matthieu Landour, Clément Bolla
RATING: *
Review By Greg Klymkiw

L'équation de Klymkiw: Spoof Of Cheesy SF + No Feel For The Genre = Not Always The Sincerest Form Of Homage. Dreadful, juvenile, thoroughly unfunny spoof of cheesy 50s SF monster movies with no feel, love or passion for the genre. The tongue is buried too deep in the cheek. Nothing is played "straight" - which is always the best way to ensure good-natured, knowing laughs. The monster suit is genuinely cool. Too bad the movie isn't. Astoundingly, it took three credited directors to helm this abysmal nonsense which could have just died the good death of so many of its ilk save for its questionable, noggin-scratching inclusion in good festivals. Official Competition at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival

Canadian Film Centre Worldwide Short Film Festival - Toronto
OPENING GALA: AWARD WINNERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema: Tuesday June 5, 7:00 pm
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema: Sunday June 10, 9:30 pm
Tickets and Info: HERE

THE FISHERMAN - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Canadian Film Centre Worldwide Short Film Festival 2012 (Toronto): Award Winners From Around The World

The Fisherman (2011) dir. Samantha Pineda Sierra
RATING: *
Review By Greg Klymkiw

L'équation de Klymkiw: Magic Realism + Day of the Dead = Take One Guess. As an old fisherman clambers into his boat and rows out to the wide open spaces, a little part of me thought, "Ah, perhaps we'll get some fabulous tale steeped in neorealism with a dash - only a dash, mind you - of existentialism. An old man and the sea. Arthritic hands. The meticulous detail with which he must continue to practise his livelihood, his craft - nay, his art." The phonograph in the boat should have given me a clue to the contrary. When he uses an old photograph as bait, my heart sunk. "Oh Christ!", I thought, "He's going to fish for his memories." I think you know the rest. On a positive note, it's not whimsical - at least not too much. Winner of an Honorable Mention, Morelia.

Canadian Film Centre Worldwide Short Film Festival - Toronto
OPENING GALA: AWARD WINNERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema: Tuesday June 5, 7:00 pm
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema: Sunday June 10, 9:30 pm
Tickets and Info: HERE

MISS BALA - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Compelling Mexican crime drama, now on DVD from Mongrel Media, succeeds in spite (or because) of its incredibly passive lead character. Set against the backdrop of the Mexican drug wars, it's one powerful and original crime picture.

Miss Bala (2011) dir. Gerardo Naranjo
Starring: Stephanie Sigman, Noe Hernandez, Irene Azuela, James Russo

***1/2

By Greg Klymkiw

Mexico's drug wars have claimed more victims than the theatres of war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. This is an astonishing statistic, though I must admit I find it strangely disingenuous that the makers of Miss Bala go out of their way to distinguish between the illegality of either conflict. Iraq and Afghanistan claimed thousands of innocent lives and frankly, I even consider the military on "our" side to be part of that equation. The illegality of drugs and the immorality of corporate colonization aren't much different to my way of thinking. They're both evil and they both kill people.

That said, Gerardo Naranjo has crafted an eminently compelling drama set against the backdrop of Mexico's utterly insane narcotics "industry" and its reign of terror and violence which drags the innocent to the same playing field as the guilty. It is a strange odyssey Naranjo lays out for us to partake in since the journey is through the eyes of film's central character, Laura Guerrero (fashion model Stephanie Sigman) who is, without a doubt, one of the most passive figures I've seen in any recent contemporary film.

Laura and her best friend Jessica (Irene Azuela) are dirt-poor young beauties from the Mexican border town of Baja and with no real opportunities to escape the endless cycle of poverty and abuse, they leave their squalid homes behind and sashay downtown to enter a beauty pageant - hoping they'll be showered with fame and riches. They find themselves in the V.I.P. back room of a seedy nightclub where low level thugs and corrupt cops party with the bevy of beauty contest hopefuls and demand sex in exchange for the dubious influence the scumbags claim to have with the organizers of the pageant.

In the midst of this orgy of booze-swilling sexual exploitation, a reluctant Laura finds herself alone in a bathroom when a guerilla-warfare-like strike upon the club from a gang led by the slimy, charismatic drug-lord Lino Valdez (Noe Hernandez) results in the wholesale execution of everyone within. Laura escapes, but is unaware of the extent of the slaughter. Seeking safety, but also information about her missing friend Jessica, Laura is plunged into a nightmare where she is forced to participate in one illegal act after another.

This is where the movie just keeps getting stranger with every minute. While she might have the active goal of pure survival, so many of her actions are spurred on by submissively following the orders of Lino - implicating her ever-deeper in a net of criminal activity. Lino also has his eye on Laura as more than just a mule for his various criminal activities, but a full-blown moll to service all his sexual desires.

Director Naranjo creates a world rife with violence and exploitation. The steady, deliberate pace creates a sense of nightmare for both Laura and, since the action is through her eyes, the audience. There's a dirge-like sense that nothing will get better, and in fact, the insanity Laura is embroiled in gets increasingly worse.

In this sense, her passivity in order to survive becomes her most active characteristic and the movie creates an indelible portrait of innocence lost. Curiously, it's not so much a sense of the corruption of Laura's purity since said corruption is almost inadvertent. Like all innocents, she in the wrong place at the right time.

The chilling option posed is always the same: "I can help you, but you have to do something for me." In crime as in war, exploitation always boils down to tit-for-tat. It's the only glimmer of hope for survival.

Finally, like all wars, drug-related or not, it is the innocent who suffer the greatest loss - loss of life, and in Laura's case, loss of soul.

Miss Bala packs a roundhouse wallop. It's a stark, terrifying spiral into an amoral world that drags all of us down the drain and as such, is one of the most powerful crime pictures you're likely to see this year. Or any year in recent memory.

"Miss Bala" played in limited theatrical release via Mongrel Media who has now released the film on DVD. Sadly, there are no extras, but it is a decent transfer and the movie is definitely worth owning. The movie made its debut in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival and was Mexico's official entry to the Foreign Language Oscars.

If you plan to order the DVD of "Miss Bala" consider doing so through the following Amazon links and support the maintenance of this site:

MISS BALA - Compelling Mexican crime drama succeeds in spite (or because) of its incredibly passive lead character. Set against the backdrop of the Mexican drug wars, it's one of the most powerful crime pictures you're likely to see.

Miss Bala (2011) dir. Gerardo Naranjo
Starring: Stephanie Sigman, Noe Hernandez, Irene Azuela, James Russo

***1/2

By Greg Klymkiw

Mexico's drug wars have claimed more victims than the theatres of war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. This is an astonishing statistic, though I must admit I find it strangely disingenuous that the makers of Miss Bala go out of their way to distinguish between the illegality of either conflict. Iraq and Afghanistan claimed thousands of innocent lives and frankly, I even consider the military on "our" side to be part of that equation. The illegality of drugs and the immorality of corporate colonization aren't much different to my way of thinking. They're both evil and they both kill people.

That said, Gerardo Naranjo has crafted an eminently compelling drama set against the backdrop of Mexico's utterly insane narcotics "industry" and its reign of terror and violence which drags the innocent to the same playing field as the guilty. It is a strange odyssey Naranjo lays out for us to partake in since the journey is through the eyes of film's central character, Laura Guerrero (fashion model Stephanie Sigman) who is, without a doubt, one of the most passive figures I've seen in any recent contemporary film.

Laura and her best friend Jessica (Irene Azuela) are dirt-poor young beauties from the Mexican border town of Baja and with no real opportunities to escape the endless cycle of poverty and abuse, they leave their squalid homes behind and sashay downtown to enter a beauty pageant - hoping they'll be showered with fame and riches. They find themselves in the V.I.P. back room of a seedy nightclub where low level thugs and corrupt cops party with the bevy of beauty contest hopefuls and demand sex in exchange for the dubious influence the scumbags claim to have with the organizers of the pageant.

In the midst of this orgy of booze-swilling sexual exploitation, a reluctant Laura finds herself alone in a bathroom when a guerilla-warfare-like strike upon the club from a gang led by the slimy, charismatic drug-lord Lino Valdez (Noe Hernandez) results in the wholesale execution of everyone within. Laura escapes, but is unaware of the extent of the slaughter. Seeking safety, but also information about her missing friend Jessica, Laura is plunged into a nightmare where she is forced to participate in one illegal act after another.

This is where the movie just keeps getting stranger with every minute. While she might have the active goal of pure survival, so many of her actions are spurred on by submissively following the orders of Lino - implicating her ever-deeper in a net of criminal activity. Lino also has his eye on Laura as more than just a mule for his various criminal activities, but a full-blown moll to service all his sexual desires.

Director Naranjo creates a world rife with violence and exploitation. The steady, deliberate pace creates a sense of nightmare for both Laura and, since the action is through her eyes, the audience. There's a dirge-like sense that nothing will get better, and in fact, the insanity Laura is embroiled in gets increasingly worse.

In this sense, her passivity in order to survive becomes her most active characteristic and the movie creates an indelible portrait of innocence lost. Curiously, it's not so much a sense of the corruption of Laura's purity since said corruption is almost inadvertent. Like all innocents, she in the wrong place at the right time.

The chilling option posed is always the same: "I can help you, but you have to do something for me." In crime as in war, exploitation always boils down to tit-for-tat. It's the only glimmer of hope for survival.

Finally, like all wars, drug-related or not, it is the innocent who suffer the greatest loss - loss of life, and in Laura's case, loss of soul.

Miss Bala packs a roundhouse wallop. It's a stark, terrifying spiral into an amoral world that drags all of us down the drain and as such, is one of the most powerful crime pictures you're likely to see this year. Or any year in recent memory.

"Miss Bala" is in limited theatrical release via Mongrel Media. It will be playing at the AMC theatres in Toronto and Montreal. It made its debut in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2011 Cannes International Film Festival and was Mexico's official entry to the Foreign Language Oscars.