RBG

Gloria Steinem calls her “the closest thing to a superhero that I know,” suggesting why diminutive Ruth Bader Ginsburg has become an icon. As the second woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court—after Sandra Day O’Connor—Justice Ginsburg has become an unlikely trendsetter. With rapper Dessa’s “The Bullpen” playing over glimpses of Ginsburg exercising (accompanied by disparaging quotes from her right-wing critics), this documentary profile illuminates why RBG is one of our best and brightest legal eagles. When Ginsburg entered Cornell University, there were four men for every woman undergraduate. There she met her future husband, Marty, who became a New York tax lawyer and was her staunchest supporter until he died, in 2010. At Harvard Law School in the mid-1950s, Ginsburg was one of nine women in a class of more than 500 men (at a dinner for the first-year women, the dean asked each why she was taking a seat that could be occupied by a man). When RBG argued her first case at the Supreme Court—1973’s Frontiero v. Richardson—she addressed men who did not acknowledge or even understand gender-based discrimination. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter put her on the federal bench, and President Bill Clinton appointed her as the 107th Supreme Court Justice in 1993. Directors Betsy West and Julie Cohen intercut archival material with informative interviews and public appearances. A two-time cancer survivor, RBG forged a firm friendship with her right-wing foil, the late Antonin Scalia, and she laughed at Kate McKinnon’s parody on TV’s Saturday Night Live. An engaging and informative overview of the life and career of this notable Supreme Court justice, this is recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include additional interviews (24 min.), and deleted/extended scenes (7 min.). Bottom line: a solid extras package for an inspiring biographical portrait.] (S. Granger)