TIME

(director/writer: Garrett Bailey; cinematographers: Zac Manuel/Justin Zweifach/Nisa East; editor: Garrett Bailey; music: Jamieson Shaw, Edwin Montgomery; Runtime: 81; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley; Amazon Studios; 2020-B/W)

“It’s a mesmerizing portrait of a family’s resilience to deal with a failing criminal system that can’t see things properly with its heart.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

The Time we’re talking about is prison Time. This documentary on the injustice in the American justice system is helmed with passion by Garrett Bailey (“Alone”).

The Louisiana Black businesswoman and mother of six children, Fox Rich, employed now as a prison abolitionist, is fighting to get her husband Rob G. Rich released from the Louisiana State Prison, where he has been serving 18 years of a 60-year sentence without parole for armed robbery he committed when young with his wife and nephew. His wife was released after 3 years to be a single mother, and has since that date fought to get her husband released.

The power of Time is to use homemade video diaries by Fox over the last two decades of the family growing up together without the patriarch, and stressing the need for him to be home raising the kids with his wife, as he has seemed to be punished enough for his crime and it serves no more purpose.

It’s a mesmerizing portrait of a family’s resilience to deal with a failing criminal system that can’t see things properly with its heart.

REVIEWED ON 12/19/2020  GRADE: A-