Time

2020 Directed by Garrett Bradley

Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.

Fox Rich Rob Rich II Freedom Rich Justus Rich Laurence M. Rich Mahlik Rich Remington Rich Rob G. Rich

81 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★★½ 3

On its surface, Garrett Bradley’s “Time” asks a simple question: How can you convey the full length of 21 years in the span of a single film, let alone a documentary that runs just 81 minutes? And from its degraded opening images — borrowed from the first of a thousand video messages that a black Louisiana woman named Sibil Fox Richardson (aka “Fox Rich”) recorded for her husband as she waited for him to be released from the State Penitentiary — offers a similarly simple answer: You don’t measure it in length, but rather in loss.
You measure time in absence. In the undertows of anger that swirl under the water and threaten to sweep you out to sea. In…
Review by Lucy ★★★★½ 2

NYFF 2020: film #9
"desperate people do desperate things. it’s as simple as that"
not only one of the most moving documentaries i've ever seen, but certainly one of the most moving films i've ever seen. overwhelming doesn't even cut it
Review by new year, same allain 🎆 3

Mass incarceration and unjust prison system really is the definition of modern day slavery. Time is a documentary film that tells the story of Fox Rich and her two decade long fight for the release of her husband, who is currently serving a sixty year sentence in prison. Ever since America was colonized, the minorities, especially the black community, are under extreme scrutiny that even the slightest offense can get them arrested, or even killed. The corruption and prejudice are deeply rooted with America’s justice system, to the point of losing your humanity if you were convicted, falsely or otherwise.
Time itself is a critical symbolism for the film, as it represents how much of it was wasted by trying…
Review by The Oscar Expert ★★★★½ 2

It's insane that there are people who watched this entire movie and their takeaway is "well, they shouldn't have robbed a bank".
The final 10 minutes are so powerful on so many levels. Why are we depriving people of their most basic joys and freedoms with no opportunity for redemption? What does anyone gain from keeping people like Robert in prison? And more importantly, what do we lose from it?
Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★

“My twins will be 18 next month. 18 years old. When their daddy got sentenced, I was three months pregnant. They have absolutely no idea about what it means to have a father in their house, what fathers even do.”
the most emotional and best edited film of the year. 2020 has taught me many things, but the thing I will remember for the rest of my life regardless of whatever happens to me, is that love is truly the strongest force in the universe. whether it’s after 6 months or 20 years, true love, that kind of unshakable force of adoration and devotion, cannot be beaten or broken, no matter what the world does. how anyone can watch this…
Review by Sean Baker 9

Watched Academy screener
Review by Kristen Yoonsoo Kim ★★★★

god, when she says "i want to be as far away from this level of pain for my whole family as i can...so far away that i don't even remember how bad it really hurt."
abolish prisons
Review by liam ★★★ 11

New York Film Festival 2020
Garrett Bradley’s newest documentary, Time is a deeply emotional ride with strong cinematography and music alike. This very somber story is built around a father’s prison sentence and how harmful his absence is on the people around him. This tackles this subject matter in a very raw way, respectfully giving the subjects a voice to share their own personal opinions on the prison system as a whole.
The choice of swapping from b-roll to a-roll was a perfect decision, illustrating how Rob's absence had a huge impact on the family. All of the speeches that many of the family members have are powerful in and of themselves, but the addition of music just amplifies the…
Review by kevintporter ★★★★

Oh, very human and devastating! Who am I to tell you anything about this doc but the family at the center of it is of course very captivating and complicated. Beautifully shot, empathetically rendered, the post-phone call scene is THE scene of 2020 probably??
Also learning that director Garrett Bradley was a woman and not as I had assumed a man shifted my perception of it. And isn't THAT interesting of me to be so self-reflective and honest about this?
Truly if nothing else this doc validates my feeling that every personal home video we take has inherent pricelessness, back up your videos folks! Four stars!
Review by fran hoepfner ★★★★

the rage beneath the phone voice
Review by Jack ★★★★½ 2

“Time is what you make of it. Time is unbiased. Time is lost. Time... flies”

Time is a soul-stirring chronicle of two decades of love barred by an unjust criminal justice system. It painstakingly blurs the line between past and present, gently examining the passage of time with all of its inevitable sorrows & divine hopes. Bradley’s doc isn’t a pity piece nor a “curse the world!” disquisition; rather, this is a film filled with so much love as a resilient woman pleas for forgiveness & yearns for justice. Easily the most moving film of 2020.
Review by Jacob ★★★★★ 1

"I wanna be as far away from this level of pain as I can be. So far away that I don’t even remember how bad it really hurt."
Fox sits at her desk as she makes a call, and she gets put on hold. There's no hold music. It's just silent, and she has to sit in that silence and wait. After a long beat, there's a twitch in her eye, and it's in that moment you realize this is what she's been doing for nearly two decades -- waiting.
Time is a story about a woman fighting to hold her family together in a situation that is profoundly unfair. It's a clear, concise argument in the name of abolition. And it is a heartbreaking, devastating love story.
I'm speechless.

Recent reviews

Review by Duncan-Saurio ★★★★★

Es tan interesante y bonito como un discurso, o una idea pueden causar tantas cosas en las personas, compartan o no la situación, y eso demuestra como nosotros, como seres humanos, nos gusta conectar o pensar en todo lo que nos dicen las personas que dan un discurso. Esa es una de mis partes favoritas de Time, la gran manera en que están hechos los discursos o sermones que dan conforme avanza la película, te hacen sentir y te hacen emocionaete y reflexionar con todo lo que van diciendo. La musica acompaña de una muy buena manera esas charlas o momentos wue vemos y escuchamos multiplicando las sensaciones que causan por si solos.
Una historia muy digna de ser compartida y muy hermosa. Ese final es hermoso y emotivo, todas mis emociones se dispararon, no solo al final, también durante todo el documental. De mis favoritos del 2020.
Review by Oliver Webster ★★★★½

An incredibly emotional and moving documentary. Fox is such an inspiring woman and it was pure joy to see her reunited with Rob. One of my favourite things about film is the way colour can appear on screen, but seeing this in black and white was just as fantastic as vibrant colours can be.
Review by Brian Yatco ★★★★½

A beautiful and incredibly emotional personalised critique of capitalism and the prison industrial complex. Heartbreaking, relevant, and incredibly well made.
Review by Matthieu_R

J'imagine même pas les stories insta qu'elle fait.
Review by inoohu ★★★½

Moving and intimate
Review by Alex Whelan ★★★★½

Beautiful approach to using primary sources in documentary. Occasionally the timeline was a bit distracting for me though I came to accept the window into their lives as it came. I cried.
Review by Nick Ball ★★★★

I didn’t write down the exact quote but right at the end someone says something like “you’re going to love this woman and we’re going to be happy for the rest of life” and it’s absolutely incredible to watch.

2020
Review by ne ★★★★½

“i want to make a more forgiving justice system”
again and again and again and until it happens, abolish prisons.
Review by meirabarreto ★★★

A história é melhor do que o documentário que a retrata
Review by Pedro ★★★

That final montage!
Review by samfreedman ★★★★

God. 🖤
Review by Adam Bentley ★★★½

Oof. Those last 10 minutes run the gamut, including such a pure final frame.
7.5