An Army of Women review – shocking story of sex-assault survivors’ fight for justice

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Julie Lunde Lillesæter’s timely documentary tells the story of the courageous women whose cases of sexual assault and rape have gone unheard by the US judicial system In 2018, a historic lawsuit was brought against the US city of Austin, Travis County, the Austin Police Department, and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office. The plaintiffs were survivors of sexual assault, whose cases had gone unheard by the judicial system. Gripping and timely, Julie Lunde Lillesæter’s riveting documentary follows these courageous women as they fight for justice. The film lays bare the shocking details concerning how sex crimes were treated in the county. In one year, between July 2016 and June 2017, of more than 220 cases presented for prosecution, only one went to trial – and the victim in this instance was male. Testimony from the survivors reveal the harrowing extent to which officials turned a blind eye; even with scientific evidence such as DNA matches, the majority of criminal filings w...
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Becoming Madonna review – a megastar’s extraordinary ascent to pop royalty

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The singer’s journey to the top is retold through archive clips and audio, efficiently albeit perhaps too straightforwardly

The story of Madonna’s leap to stratospheric celebrity is breathlessly and efficiently retold in this documentary that uses only archive clips and existing audio interview material in the now accepted way. It tracks the period from her tough beginnings as a dancer in late 70s New York to the early 90s days of the Blonde Ambition tour and her once-controversial Mapplethorpe-type book of photos entitled Sex. It’s watchable enough, with some interesting things to say about Madonna’s instinctive knack for appropriating a gay aesthetic and repurposing it for her own heterosexual spectacle, and then repaying the debt by becoming an outspoken advocate for HIV/Aids research.

Yet the film can also feel breezy and glib. There is no mention of Madonna’s appearances in movies such as Desperately Seeking Susan and Dick Tracy or indeed her appearance in David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow on Broadway – perhaps because these don’t fit the “legendary” format (although Desperately Seeking Susan has its admirers). And there is something exasperating in the way the film won’t reveal the exact dates and provenance of its audio; Madonna will sometimes speak about her past and her family in a British accent, showing that the interview comes from the later era of her marriage to Guy Ritchie, and sometimes her voice will switch back to her native Michigan.

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