RBG has a pleasantly surprising amount of style for a biography documentary. The shots of Ruth working out alongside a personal trainer certainly put those of us with gym memberships that go “semi-regularly” to shame. Directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West worked really hard to find interesting and unusual footage of RBG and were very successful putting her accomplishments into a narrative context. This documentary does an excellent job of going beyond “declarations” of significance and explains why RBG’s accomplishments matter. Watching this movie, myself and the entire theatre was overcome with how adorable the eighty-four-year-old version of RBG is. How such an unstoppable force could fit inside such a tiny human-being is remarkable.
Given our current political climate RBG also offers a view of what feels like a century ago: a time when politicians at the opposite side of the political spectrum would ride elephants together (Ginsburg and Scalia), and gently poke fun at each other during interviews. The documentary smartly points out that while RBG seems “far-left” by today’s standards she wasn’t always considered that way even within the supreme court. RBG championed women’s rights and made a point throughout her career of acting as the voice of reason when debates got particularly contentious. I gained a lot of respect for Judge Scalia and Orin Hatch, both of whom were shown in this documentary putting politics aside in an attempt to find common ground. Even the shots of RBG’s confirmation hearing feel like an incredibly distant past given the erosion of political discourse in 2018, and one can only hope Ginsburg can serve as an example to whatever political movement overtakes Trump’s America.
The Good: RBG is smartly punctuated with rap music, Kate McKinnon SNL clips, and candid home interviews which make this documentary a blast to watch. Instead of only showing clips of RBG reciting her ideology, we instead got to the know the entire person over the course of 90 minutes - and the filmmakers deserve a ton of credit for that.
The Bad: Why the creators didn’t name this movie “The Notorious R.B.G” is beyond me. Seems like a huge missed opportunity, and would have garnered more ticket sales because of the title alone.