Time

I actually saw this because of its Oscar nomination for best Documentary Feature but I don't really like it. It's both messy and empty. It feels like it's missing a lot of informations and explanations. And it's chaotic when it comes to character identities. As for the story itself, it seems powerful but if you think well about it, it doesn't fully make sense.

"It's almost like slavery time, like the white man keep you there until he figures it's time for you to get out." Robert Richardson's mother.

It's not what you would expect, this personal documentary narrated by Sibil Fox Richardson about the 21 years she waited for her husband, Robert, to be released from prison for a robbery he committed with her in 1997 in Shreveport, La. It is a quiet essay with almost professional grade home video for Sibil as she narrates the patient struggle to get her husband's sentence reduced from 65 years.

Although such a draconian sentence begs for the sobriquet of "Black racism," the doc, deftly directed by Garrett Bradley, makes few allusions to that societal challenge. It is rather, as its title succinctly suggests, a treatise on the passage of time with its attendant sorrows and its equally powerful hope: "God looks over the sparrows, Sibil. He's going to look over us," says Robert.

Sibil took a plea bargain of twelve years in order to attend to what would be six children, as handsome and articulate as their mom and dad. No weeping and gnashing, just melancholy longing to take time back to when the family had so much promise. Smartly, Bradley shows videos in the final shots of the family in reverse as if time could be altered but never would be.

He also makes the right decision to leave the doc in black and white in order to blend the past with the present. Unlike other documentaries about carceral injustice, Time does not demand we accept Robert as victim-it accepts his mistake and subtly suggests only that the sentence was excessive.

By showing the talented Sibil doggedly working for reform (she could have been a preacher) and her exemplary family soldiering on without dad is the best argument for careful, unbiased sentencing in a system that fails to account for incarceration's effect on everyone, the convict's family and us. Law and order sometimes forget the human factor.

"But at my back I always hear/ Time's winged chariot hurrying near." Andrew Marvel

As far as documentaries go, this one is incredibly sparse and shallow. There's not a lot of factual information or real details in it, but there's a lot of cinematic moments that are clearly meant to pull on your heartstrings. I really hoped that instead of building up to emotional moments with their black and white mind blowing cinematography that they had focused on actually telling a better story. It's really not Oscar worthy material, no chance. It's as slow moving as molasses in January and a lot of repetitive close up shots that look like someone shot them on an iPhone pointed at themselves, a lot of insipid moments of waiting on hold or working out at the gym, and really, really boring scenes where almost nothing happens. Let's please raise the bar a little bit.

Greetings again from the darkness. "Our prison system is nothing more than slavery, and I'm an abolitionist." So states Fox Rich, a successful business woman, and the mother of six boys. Director Garrett Bradley brings us the story of this woman who devoted 20 years to the mission of getting her husband's prison sentence reduced. It was 1997, and the desperate Shreveport couple were arrested for armed bank robbery. Fox took the plea bargain, while husband Rob did not.

Fox served less than 3 years for her involvement in the robbery, while a Louisiana judge sentenced Rob to 60 years (the maximum sentence was 99), with no allowance for parole. Fox was pregnant with twins when Rob was sentenced. She named the twins Freedom and Justus. Director Bradley expertly weaves clips from the home videos Fox recorded for Rob with 'in the moment' discussions and observations of her attempts to get someone in the system to hear the case.

What we witness over the course of the film is a proud, strong, fierce woman who, as a single mother, raises 6 kids while she works - at her job and to get Rob released. Twice per month visits is all that she's allowed with Rob, which leads one of the sons to comment that hiding behind the strong family image is a lot of pain. Fox discusses how her mother taught her to believe in the American Dream, but desperate people do desperate things ... although we never get an explanation of just why Fox and Rob were so desperate to rob a bank. Fox's mother states, "Right don't come to you doing wrong", and then she turns around and compared incarceration to slavery.

There are some mixed messages delivered here, which is understandable given how complicated life can get. Perhaps the most vivid message is the impact incarceration has on a family. Fox is an extraordinary woman devoted to raising her sons as strong and smart young men. But she also decries that her boys have never had a father and don't even know the role one plays. While Fox displays the ultimate in polite phone decorum despite her frustrations with an uncaring, inefficient system, we do see her sincerity as she stands in front of her church congregation asking for forgiveness of her poor choices.

The film was highly acclaimed and talked about at Sundance 2020, and that's likely because it strikes hard at family emotions and societal issues. A prime example is the phone call between Fox and Rob just prior to his re-sentencing hearing. From a filmmaking perspective, the black and white images are terrific, and as previously stated, the home movies and "live" filming are expertly blended. On the downside, the sound mix is horrible at the beginning, and the music (beautiful piano playing) often overpowers the dialogue throughout. It's a film meant to create discussion amongst viewers, and it's sure to do so.

"Time" is an attention getting doc done thru the personal diary like videos of one Fox Rich a Louisiana mom of 6 who's faced almost 20 years without her husband Rob who's still locked up for armed robbery. It preaches faith, hope, and love, at the same time you see Fox's and the kids loss and pain without no husband or dad. Plus it looks at the prison system as being cruel and unkind and the doc promotes and ask that the criminal justice system be more forgiving. Done in black and white this is a focus and feature on human life, family, love, and most of all release and happiness as it's freedom from the system.