The Truth of Ruth

RBG, a documentary about the life and career of women’s rights pioneer and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, affectionately known to many as “Notorious RBG,” premiered this past Mother’s Day weekend.  The film scored an impressive 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and was hailed by one reviewer as “educational, fun and inspiring!”  Equally surprising for a small non-fiction film, RBG secured the 10th slot at the domestic box office with $1.8 million in revenue.

Rolling Stone’s review of the movie points out that Ginsburg was one of only nine women in her Harvard Law School class and describes a photo featured in the doc that “finds our petite young Jewish 24-year-old virtually engulfed by WASP-y Eisenhower-era bros.”  That fact, and the various instances of gender discrimination she experienced both in and outside of academia, led Ginsburg to co-found the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union where she successfully brought a number of gender discrimination cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in the mid-1970s.  In 1980, President Carter appointed Ginsburg to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit where she served until her Supreme Court appointment by President Clinton in 1993.

While the film’s box office numbers and distribution numbers pale in comparison to big studio epics like “The Avengers: Infinity War” which raked in $61.9 million, RBG like its diminutive subject who has been described as “a real-life American Superhero,” is quite impressive for a limited release documentary showing on a scant 180 screens. According to Variety, distributor Magnolia Pictures plans to expand the film to 350 screens as soon as next week.