I Am Vanessa Guillen

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.