Most people think time is just a number. That it measures in minutes, seconds, hours, light years, whatever. But the more you think about it, time warps to our emotions and feelings just like anything else. This documentary focuses on time’s emotional journey through the eyes of Sibil Fox Richardson (Fox Rich she goes by), and how her life circumstances have shaped her personal concept of time.
You could say for sure Rich has lived a life! A driven woman, she started an urban clothes store with her high school sweetheart, Rob. However, their store fell on hard times, making the couple desperate. They decided to steal from a bank, which obviously, goes poorly and they get caught. Fox got 3 years in prison, but Rob received 60! Time goes through Fox’s journey from business owner to activist and mother through home videos she took throughout her life.
Time is certainly the most directed of the documentaries in 2020. Garrett Bradley clearly is interested in Fox’s story, so he puts a lot of time and effort into making it pop as much as possible. Filmed in black and white, and interspersing old footage with Fox’s current day fight, Bradley makes Fox Rich’s past and present constantly appear in conversation with one another. Experiences from the past inform the present, when then recontextualize what happened in the past, and so forth. Those experiences range from church, living a life of purpose, being part of a family, you know, the big stuff. The home footage helps do that thing great stories do, where the characters come off ultra specific and ubiquitous at the same time, making the story interesting and relatable, of which time is certainly both.
While that direction is beautiful, there’s mixed messages in what the movie is trying to sell. Emotionally, it hits a home run with its message of perseverance against a rigid system. There are many wonderful small moments (repeated phone calls about judge decisions, the growth of Fox’s kids over time) that drive home how LONG this process has taken to try to simply get their father/husband home. But that affection Garrett Bradley has for Fox Rich? It consumes almost the entire focus of the story, leaving all sorts of great stories on the table. We hear very little from Fox’s kids, or her mother, both of whom had to live without Fox or Rob for 3.5 years! There’s also not enough focus how time has changed Rob or any of these people besides Fox in any deep way. Because of this, the message becomes more about Fox for chunks of time. Granted, she’s a captivating screen presence, but there’s enough time with her family that makes them deserving of more screen time, which would make Time a more rich storytelling experience.
At least I know who Fox Rich is now. Her charisma knows no bounds, and I hope Time gives her more of a platform to help her message of perseverance, loyalty, and a life of purpose get out to as many people as possible. Let’s face it, we all want to find a life of purpose, and Fox Rich is a wonderful example of how we can all get there no matter what has happened in our past. In other words, we’ve got time.