Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.
RBG is a competent and engaging documentary portrait of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, benefiting from intimate access and a compelling subject. The narrative structure is solid but follows a fairly conventional biographical documentary template — archival footage, talking-head interviews, career highlights — without pushing the form in distinctive ways. The 'acting' dimension here refers to interview presence and subject charisma, which Ginsburg herself delivers well. Cinematography is professional but unremarkable for the genre. Novelty is modest; while Ginsburg herself is singular, the filmmaking approach is familiar territory for prestige docs. The ending, arriving before her 2020 death, feels somewhat open-ended and lacks a strong dramatic resolution, leaving the film feeling slightly incomplete as a standalone work.