RBG is having a moment right now. There's a movie coming out about her. She's a popular Kate McKinnon character on SNL. "Notorious RBG" has become a surprisingly popular meme. And, let's be honest, a lot of people are paying attention to her because they're afraid that she's going to die and make Trump's current term as president one of the most impactful to the Supreme Court ever.
Frankly, I'm not smart enough or well researched enough to get political here. I've just accepted that every couple years, pop culture likes to highlight an old person for some reason. Remember when Betty White made a comeback around 2010 for no apparent reason. Well, it's Ruth Bader Ginsberg right now. That's not to say RBG [or White] doesn't deserve the attention. So, let's just accept that RBG is a big deal right now for whatever reason and look at the documentary itself.
So, the documentary is fine. I really like the part that was all about her life story. It does a great job showing how the exact things she made her career fighting against were hurdles that she, herself, had to fight through. I suspect she has one of the better origin stories among the current Supreme Court Justices. The movie gets plenty of access to RBG, her family, and her coworkers. The section about her friendship with Scalia was nice. I'm a sap for stories about political figures getting along with people across party lines.
I was less interested in the latter parts. It felt too much like the documentary was trying to justify its existence. It felt like every other person was talking about how she isn't too old to still be serving on the Supreme Court. The footage of her working out has become infamous at this point. I was surprised how much it was featured in the movie. I appreciate the attempt to track down how she reached meme status, but it felt like it belonged in a different documentary. I wish they could've found a better way to mix that in.
I don't think I will find anything that tickled me more than watching RBG watch Kate McKinnon's RBG on SNL though. Maybe if McKinnon was in the room with her at the time. I just really want to know how this was brought up. How do the filmmakers bring that up. "Have you seen the SNL sketches about you? Do you mind if we show it to you and get your reaction?" I have to imagine that happened late in the project.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
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