GUEST CRITIC #45: On the Basis of Sex

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me.  As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there.  Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy.  Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering.  In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.


TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn

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Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her 13th guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome back, Lafronda!


HER REVIEW: On the Basic of Sex

Ruth Bayer Ginsburg is one of the most beloved Supreme Court Justices of all time. Ginsburg's well-celebrated cases were defending woman's rights, racial justice, and LGBT rights. Ginsburg was groundbreaking, being one of the first women to be accepted by Harvard. Unfortunately, she had many obstacles in making her dreams come true being an attorney. Felicity Jones plays the popular justice who took years for recognizing her as a great lawyer due to sexism of a woman making a living in a profession that men rule and dominate by nature.

The film began in 1956. Ginsburg enters Harvard. Ruth is happily married to Martin Ginsburg (Armie Hammer), who is in his second year in law school at Columbia University. They have a daughter who later has aspirations of being an attorney. One day, Martin is diagnosed with cancer, and Ruth attempts to take her classes and his classes at Columbia. Ultimately, Ruth asks the head of Harvard (Sam Waterson) to transfer her studies to Columbia. He declines and accepts that Havard's graduation has difficulty finding a law firm that would hire her. Finally, she takes a job as a professor at Rutgers’s law school.

In 1970, Martin, who is now thriving at a law firm in New York, suggests that Ruth take Moritz and Commissioner's case. The case involves a single man needing a caretaker for his elderly mother. His situation is that he is rejected for a tax deduction because he never married and is a man. The IRS only gives beliefs to women or men whose wives are deceased. Ruth meets with Mel Wulff (Justin Theroux), the ACLU head, to see if he can help her with the case. Mel is reluctant; he begrudgingly accepts but still has reservations.

Several scenes will make many people squirm in their seats when Ginsburg attempts to get a job at the previous law firm in New York. Despite giving the potential employer a legitimate reason to hire her, he still turns her down. There is a practice drill given by Wulff and his associates. All three of them give her constant criticism of Ginsburg's defending Moritz. In an earlier scene, Martin and Ruth argue about his career advancement and how Ruth complains that she is not living up to her potential. Wulff offers Moritz a settlement and gives Ginsburg the paper to take Attorneys at Harvard to sign. Ginsburg struggles if she should allow this to happen.

Felicity Jones is good as Ginsburg. Jones displays the intelligence, wit, and determination to make her dream come true to be a lawyer, which is her destiny. Hammer is just as good as the supportive husband who very much wanted Ginsburg to be a successful attorney despite the odds against her. The script by Daniel Stiepelman covers almost 15 years of Ginsburg life, and it doesn't' feel rushed to cover this period of life that was a frustrating but eventually rewarding profession that alluded her for so long. The director Mimi Leder also does a fine job with pacing and not letting the narrative is going too fast.

The film is a fine tribute to a great attorney and a trailblazer for many undervalued Americans who do not get the opportunity against a county that benefits, mainly White males. White Male was the only people who benefited from liberty and the pursuit of happiness.


CONCLUSION

Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!

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