On the Basis of Sex is a 2018 American biographical legal drama film based on the life and early cases of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was the second woman to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Jack Reynor, Cailee Spaeny, Sam Waterston, and Kathy Bates feature in supporting roles.
The film had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 8, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 25, 2018, by Focus Features.
On the Basis of Sex received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised Jones' performance, the film's intricacy and its pacing at a dramatic level.
Ruth sees in this case an opportunity to begin to challenge the many laws enacted over the years that assume that men will work to provide for the family, and women will stay home and take care of the husband and children.
[5] Outside the courthouse, judgment being reserved, Wulf, Moritz, and the Ginsburgs celebrate that, win or lose, Ruth has finally found her voice as a lawyer.
Ruth went on to co-found the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, which struck down many of the sex-based laws Bozarth identified, and in 1993 the Senate voted 96 to 3 for her to become an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.
[7] Production started in late 2017 in Montreal Quebec, and the cast was rounded out by Justin Theroux, Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston, Jack Reynor, Stephen Root, and Cailee Spaeny in October as filming commenced.
[6] The film's script, written by Daniel Stiepleman who is Ginsburg's nephew, had made the 2014 blacklist of the best unproduced screenplays of the year.
[11][12] The cast was completed by Justin Theroux, Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston, Jack Reynor, Stephen Root and Cailee Spaeny in October as filming commenced.
Screenwriter Daniel Stiepleman, in response to the criticism, stated that the point of the dialogue was to show that the Constitution, like the country as a whole, was always open to improvement.
[20] On September 21, 2018, pop rap recording artist Kesha released the song "Here Comes the Change" as a standalone single, however it was not included in the film's soundtrack.
The website's critical consensus reads, "On the Basis of Sex is nowhere near as groundbreaking as its real-life subject, but her extraordinary life makes a solid case for itself as an inspirational, well-acted biopic.
Armie Hammer, 32, who plays Marty, calls attention to the film’s split personality, citing, on the one hand, its focus on the Ginsburgs’ “amazing partnership” and, on the other, its stuffier theme of public policy: "“How a government taxes its citizens,” Hammer says, with the cadence of the attorney he plays, “is a direct representation of how that government views its people.”"[29] A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted that the film stays close to the true story of Ginsburg's emergence as a leading women's rights attorney: "That the movie may leave you wanting more — more history, more personality, more complicated emotion, more ideological contention — doesn't necessarily count against it.