Yo soy Vanessa Guillén

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

Vanessa Guillen was a young Latin American woman, whose dreams did not conform with traditional gender norms. She wanted to make her name either as a boxer, or in the military, and went with the latter. Making her family extremely proud, Vanessa settled in well at the Fort Hood military compound for a while, but quickly grew disillusioned, and complained of sexual harassment and abuse by her fellow cadets. She was later found murdered in a shallow ditch, spurring her mother Gloria, and sisters Mayra and Lupe into a ferocious battle for justice, and exposing a top down culture of corruption at FH, whilst effecting a change in the law.

If their general original content is somewhat hit and miss, Netflix can generally be relied on to produce a solid, insightful documentary, and this, the feature length directorial debut of director Christy Wegener, would be one such example. A shocking, unbelievable true life tale of institutional corruption and evil, it shines a light on a marginalised voice, in the shape of a young woman from a minority background, and the failings and betrayal of an organisation meant to protect her. Of shattered dreams and shattered hearts, finding the strength to rise up to demand justice and change.

No longer able to fight her own corner, Vanessa's legacy rests in the hands of her mother and two sisters, who are (without generalising) a typically impassioned Latin American family, dealt the most shattering of blows. You can feel the fire raging within them, as they chase their campaign around the company, rallying legal experts, lawmakers and even (then) President Trump in to making Vanessa's life matter. This was a young woman whose only crime was to pursue a dream and make her loved ones proud, and it's truly shocking how the apparently most honourable, and most deserving of respect, people actually behave when forced in to a corner and told to justify their actions, as we've seen in other recent documentaries such as Athlete A. It really makes you feel uncomfortable.

There are some people who sadly end up having more of an impact in death than they do in life, which things like the death of George Floyd (whatever you thought of him) proven, and someone like Vanessa Guillen has the power to do just the same thing, and maybe even better. ****

This is an emotional and powerful film that covers a lot of ground. The story is well structured, fast paced and really dives into some complicated subject matter about the military chain of command, military legal system and getting legislation passed.

The film gives you just the right amount of information about the legal framing to follow the story, but leads with the personal stories of the subjects of the film, which are the heroes.

The focus is on a family that makes a really incredible choice - they take on the US military in order to get justice for their sister.

One of the most important films. Really worth the watch.

I didn't know what to expect when I decided to watch it. I vaguely remember the case several years back and initially thought it was gonna be a murder mystery. But it wasn't.

It took forever just to get to the death of Vanessa. Like 1/3 of the film. Then it became about military reform and I have no idea why. Because that story went nowhere.

I am sure there was a story in there somewhere, but they totally missed it.

The suspects came and went in like 2 minutes. It was all like throw-away tidbits, rather than the focus of the film, which was a shame.

It was basically 90 minutes of hearing grief from the family. But is that a movie? I say no. I sympathize with their loss and feel terrible for them, but in movies, even documentaries, there needs to be a story and not just emotional testimonials of how sad they are.

Like with most Netflix documentaries, they are way too long and add way too much fluff.

There were a lot of allegations of sexual assault, but they never connected that to the murder. Just seemed like a sideshow.

It had very little to do with Vanessa and much more about her little sister becoming an activist and good for her, but again, was that the movie they needed to make?

The filmmakers really had no focus on anything or made no connection to anything.

I don't like documentaries that rely on a bunch of speculation. "it could have happened" or "it likely did happen." That is not the basis for a whole film.

If you want to watch compelling documentaries go watch "Don't F with Cats" or "Making a Murderer." This was a mess.

What I liked:

1. Dealt with issues that could easily be dry, boring and slow in a really compelling way issues like legislation.

2. Doesn't indulge in the gore of the crime in an insensitive way.

3. This is a story that is shocking, sad, hopeful and inspiring. It really captures all kinds of emotions.

4. Moves fast. It's clear. It's complex.

5. It makes you think about it afterwards. Sticks with you.

6. I like the music through most of the film and the song at the end with the singer.

What I wished it had:

1. Wrap up of the criminal's trial. I just looked it up and saw the trial got delayed and maybe Netflix didn't want to wait to see how that finishes out.

2. I liked this topic in a film form but also think there's a lot to it and could be a series. I thought the narrative was pretty solid, but wouldn't mind a follow up.

3. Archival heavy in some parts - guessing couldn't be avoided.

This is way too long. The focus on the family is not interesting. There is a lot of ignorance about the law around the living suspect not being read Miranda, the way bills work. This is even from the expert lawyers. It's a sad story but it just goes on, there are errors, there is a ton of humble bragging that diminishes the family. It's not very coherent overall. It's not a good watch.

It is a documentary about the sisters, it spends a lot of time mentioning how young one is. It never gives a motive for the killing. It shouldn't have been made before the other person charged had a judgment, it's too open ended not well made.