Ruth - Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words
If you thought you didn’t need another documentary about U.S. Supreme Justice Ruth Ginsberg so soon after the entertaining hit RBG (2018), you would be mistaken. Ruth tells the same life story, of course, but director Freida Lee Mock tries to keep the focus on archival interviews and speeches by Ginsberg herself, as the subtitle promises.
One long sequence, for example, begins with footage of a 1990s-era Ginsberg addressing a middle school group, allowing her answers to their questions to spin the film off into various directions, relating a portion of her life story, then returning to the kids. The dozens of other vintage clips include interviews and appearances from across the decades, anchoring the narrative in Ginsberg’s point of view. The editing of all these snippets into a coherent whole is smooth and impressive.
It’s not all Ruth, all the time, though, as Mock added a few original interviews to fill in the gaps, with considerable screen time for Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, authors of the pop Ginsburg biography The Notorious RBG. There’s also some hand-drawn-style animation that adds a welcome variety to the film’s visuals.
Where Ruth goes that RBG did not is in talking at length with some of the beneficiaries of Ginsberg’s commitment to diversity, and her rulings. Most prominently featured are plaintiff Lily Ledbetter (also in RBG but worth another visit); Goodwin Liu, an Asian-American California Supreme Court justice who once clerked for Ginsberg; and Jennifer Carroll Foy, a public defender and politician who attended VMI after it was forced by to admit women by a Ginsberg-led U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Some of Ruth plays like the DVD extras you might have expected with RBG: more time with her husband Marty, more about the bonding among the female justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, video from a comic opera titled Scalia/Ginsberg. Having seen RBG, viewers will also note some gaps in this film’s biographical narrative, which makes it less desirable than the earlier film as a standalone work. But since RBG is readily available and had such a considerable reach, it’s understandable that Ruth omits or barely mentions some topics.
The film was completed before Ginsberg’s death, and it does not address her recurring illnesses, her passing, her last words, or her replacement, and the segment on her well-known exercise regimen now seems more sad than uplifting. Those who disagree with Ginsburg’s judicial philosophy will want to avoid Ruth in any case, of course, but for fans it’s another informative and (now) nostalgic 90 minutes worth investing.
Grade: B. Available for streaming via Grail Moviehouse. Also playing on Starz March 1 and 15, and on demand via Amazon and other services starting March 9.
(Photo: U.S. Supreme Court portrait, 2016)
