Citizen Ruthis a damn funny movie. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s about a woman whose four children have been placed in different foster homes as she has been declared unfit to take care of any of them (or herself), who abuses drugs and winds up getting pregnant again. The judge charges her with endangering the life of her fetus, but privately tells her that he’ll reduce the sentence if she has an abortion. Ruth becomes the center of a furious national abortion debate.
I like the movie because it satirizes not only both sides of the abortion debate, but also our media-influenced culture that becomes obsessed with one person as The Face of any particular issue. Ruth didn’t ask to be made a name, and Laura Dern plays her with a mix of bewilderment, anger, and a complete lack of self-awareness that is hilarious to watch.
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It’s deeply depressing how Alexander Payne moved from making a name for himself writing about complicated female antiheros (Citizen Ruth/Election) who are allowed to have agency to making movies that are sops to male self pity populated with women who have no pov that is their own. UGH.
I can’t remember who Laura was up against that year but she should have won the hell out of the Oscar.
Yeah, Sideways was so overrated, and I still haven’t seen The Descendants, but I don’t know when he made the transition from satire to “woe is me” comedies. It’s weird.
And Laura Dern wasn’t even NOMINATED that year, believe it or not – though depending on the film’s different release dates, I don’t know which year she would have been eligible for. Either way, Susan Sarandon won for Dead Man Walking in ’96 and Frances McDormand won for Fargo in ’97.