RBG

(directors: Betsy West/Julie Cohen; cinematographer: Claudia Raschke; editor: Carla Gutierrez; music: Miriam Cutler; Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: PG; producers: Betsy West/Julie Cohen; Magnolia Pictures; 2018)

“The informative film is modestly satisfying and calms me to know she’s on the Supreme Court fighting for the same issues I believe in.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Betsy West and Julie Cohen (“American Veteran”/”Sturgeon Queens”) are co-directors of this homage documentary to the petite (5-foot-1), soft-spoken, opera-loving, cancer surviving, feminist (as a lawyer she changed the legal status of women) and very intelligent 84-year-old revered by the liberals Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It traces her Brooklyn roots, her Ivy League education, her happy marriage to Cornell classmate Marty (the NY tax lawyer died in 2010), her days at Harvard and Columbia law schools, her college teaching days at Rutgers, her pioneering women’ rights lawyering for the ACLU and her distinguished judicial career. Liberals idolize her while the right-wing pundits call her a witch, while most of the country respects her as a capable and fair judge. She was a surprise pick of President Clinton in 1993 to the Supreme Court, and the darkhorse candidate for the position has since become the court’s star justice and a surprising pop culture icon. Her well-thought out decisions, many on the losing side on this conservative court, are always judicious. The informative film is modestly satisfying and calms me to know she’s on the Supreme Court fighting for the same issues I believe in. It shows the lovable granny judge as a warm person in real life as well as an heroic figure on the Supreme Court, seemingly the last hope of the liberals on the polarized court. They wish she can live forever.

REVIEWED ON 9/23/2018 GRADE: B    https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/