‘On the Basis of Sex’ Does Its Job Nicely

What do we incorrigible basics want from On the Basis of Sex? Glad you asked. We want Friday night entertainment, Hollywood feel-good for modern times, libero-feminist conscience-clearing (I made “libero-feminist” up, do you like it?) and the mama-birding of a complicated court case into palatable background for why we, collective pronoun, revere Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an earthly god, beyond her immutable status as a “bad bitch.” And, reader, we get just that. We don’t get much else, but we do get that. Ask and ye shall receive, as it were.

Now pardon me as I dismount my high horse. This film is every bit the excitingly fast-paced flick I would have expected. It knows its mission and accomplishes it gladly, in what amounts to a lovely and optimistic biopic that makes rooting for Ruth and her dismal odds in the battle for constitutional gender equality an effortless task. Felicity Jones makes a competent, if somewhat flat, RBG, and Armie Hammer is fine (by all definitions). Soundtrack and cinematography are nothing to write home about and overall On the Basis of Sex is by no means earth-shaking art, but it does manage to wax simultaneously escapist and current, two significant accolades in my book.

As for its educational value, I would argue it alone makes the film worth a watch. The narrative follows a young Mrs. Ginsburg as she pursues her Harvard law degree and is forced into a teaching job, ostensibly due to her gender (her Judaism makes it a double whammy). She gets her big break in the form of a tax case, wherein a man is legally discriminated against on the grounds of gender. For Ruth to win this case would set the precedent for the U.S. Supreme Court to declare discrimination on the basis of sex unconstitutional (legal experts, do correct me if I got any of that wrong, but anyway you all get the gist). I don’t know how much of this is included in American school curricula, but I for one had no familiarity with the specifics of Justice Ginsburg’s background and influence. Where I had affection for her famously liberal (but, in my mind, immaterial) rulings, and gratitude for her balancing seat on a parasite-infested legal body, I now have informed admiration and legitimised fangirling. I ain’t mad.

8/10