Time
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
We are playing catch up by reviewing films that are a part of the current awards season.
Documentaries are like any other film: a form of art or storytelling. Many documentarians feel the need to try and strengthen the production values or budget of their pictures, to allow the medium to enhance what they are trying to say. There’s nothing wrong with that, and some of the best documentaries are the ones that are made into something magical with the help of cinematic innovation. Then you get something like Time, which is so basic in its approach. It honestly doesn’t even need to do anything else. It understands that each picture is able to speak a thousand words, and you will be genuinely bowled over by Garrett Bradley’s 2020 highlight. Its simplistic nature allows its subject to grow in a way that feels nearly impossible, as if it is a miraculous discovery.
Before I get into the nature of the film and why it feels this way, I must bring up the topic. We follow Sibil Fox Richardson and her efforts to fight for her incarcerated husband Robert. He is serving a sixty year prison sentence for the same event she partook in (and only received three and a half years for): a robbery when times were tough. There is a clear distinction that his sentence was as long as it was to make him an example (as well as sure signs of systemic corruption and racism), and the robbery took place due to dire circumstances. Time is the podium for Sibil and Robert to speak their perspectives and clear the air, as well as declare the injustice of keeping him imprisoned for so many decades.
Parts of Time focus on the current process of trying to get Robert Richardson out of prison.
Then we get the second component of the film, which includes home videos, and these are the moments that elevate Time from a compelling legal story into a capsule of memories, feelings, and yearning. The film becomes a tapestry of adoration, and its own version of a plea that paints its participants in full; Robert is far more than the crime that he has been burdened with. Seeing the Richardson family grow, as well as other major events, is an absolute treat to behold. The juxtapositions between the past, present, and future is what really got to me during Time (clearly named for both the time served and the fickle nature of time itself), as if I was experiencing entire lifetimes before my very eyes. By the finale, I was ready to curl up into a ball and weep. I expected a conversation about the judicial system, and got an indescribable experience instead.
Life is something we all want to experience in our own ways, but life itself can be insanely unfair, and that’s one of the focal points of Time to me. The robbery took place for both Robert and Sibil to get by. Sibil left prison a changed person, but Robert wasn’t given that same opportunity. This crime was out of pure desperation: to keep going in this crazy thing called life. Now, it’s as if Robert’s life — and all of the things within it — have been taken away from him. If he served time for what he did, that’s one thing. To be made into the poster to scare others away from committing robberies is unimaginable. This is effectively the same as executing someone, since you’re ridding them of their existences. If the criminal deserved this kind of a punishment, that’s a whole different story. How could Sibil only get a couple of years when Robert got sixty? That’s what Time wants to know.
Time is a difficult conversation, that asks us to really look at the verdict of a crime, and to see if the punishment given is justifiable.
Equal parts harrowing and gorgeous, Time is both a celebration and a message. I saw this film months ago, but am only getting around to the review for it now because of its Academy Award nomination. Part of this wait is because I still don’t really know how to explain this film. On paper, it might feel so rudimentary. It’s a film that has to be seen to be understood, and those are sometimes the best pictures to me (the impossible to label ones). Time is certainly my favourite documentary of last year, because it took me to a number of places many films couldn’t even imagine. It’s poignant about its commentary about systemic injustices, but its appreciation of the experience of being alive is the perfect way to balance everything out. We understand the preciousness of life, whilst being informed how Robert has changed and is aware of his crimes (again, done out of desperation). We fully get the sensation of the seconds that are ticking away, as we await the final decision. One of my favourite part might be silly, because I adore how as-is this film is. It’s the final cherry on top; it’s evidence that the perfect story doesn’t need to be touched up or enhanced, and that some of the best films just exist.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.