Citizen Ruth

While the subject of abortion is at this point in time not as much in the news as when the movie was made, it is still a topic to think about.
The movie does point out the hypocrisy of both sides of outspoken pro- and anti-abortionists.
The main protagonist is a pregnant girl, pretty well depicted by Laura Dern, who is simple minded and a hopeless alcohol and drug addict.
Follow her ordeal and how she slowly finds out that the two sides of the fighters for or against abortion do not give a sh** about her and her child, but care only about themselves.
That part of the story is close to reality, not only on the subject of abortion but also in present political and social media realms.
Well made and generally good entertainment. I particularly like the ending. Discover for yourself.

A great debut for Alexander Payne!

Citizen Ruth tell the story of Ruth Stoops, a woman that always made bad choices in her life. She is very irresponsible, she is a drug addict and she is pregnant again. After being arrested one more time and when the judge finds out that she is pregnant he suggests to her that with all of her previous legal problems the better thing she has to do is "take care of her problem" if not she has to face much serious legal charges.
The local pro-life group called The Babysavers finds out about this case and want to save Ruth trying to change up her mind about killing her unborn child. The thing is there's a pro-choice group also with one of their members infiltrated in the pro-life group, they try to pass Ruth for their side telling her that she can chose and if she doesn't want to have her child no one can forcing her to that decision. And that's when all of the troubles begin!

Ruth is very immature and despite the serious theme this film is turns out to be hilarious due to the characters and the way some of the arguments are introduced. It's a clever satire about the controversy of abortion.

The acting is very good from all of the cast particularly Laura Dern, who plays Ruth Stoops, with a very convincing performance.

This is the kind of a film that has an open-ending where you are free to think what you want, and take your own conclusions of the story. What choice should Ruth make? Is Ruth really a bad person or she just needs help?

Once again I'm kinda baffled by how much more personality this has than Payne's later works. It's one thing to mature as a filmmaker, but with Payne I've always felt like he became increasingly safe after he started to receive serious critical acclaim. There's a lot I find quite impressive about this for a debut feature. Laura Dern's performance is excellent (very different from any of her work with Lynch and Spielberg) and the comedy is great. The sound and editing do a great job at making the absurd situations Ruth finds herself in more entertaining. She's a hard character to root for, but the script and Dern do a great job at making us feel empathy as a viewer. Now, because this movie is satirizing America's relation to abortion rights, it still feels relevant to this day. Full disclosure: I come from a place where it's pretty agreed upon that America's relation to abortion has always been quite ridiculous and behind the curve. Payne seems to have similar thoughts, but his point of view feels basic and doesn't quite dig deep enough to a place I'd find really compelling. It introduces a potentially interesting plot twist half way through, but in the end it constantly keeps cycling back to the same point over and over again. It kinda makes a similar mistake I often find in the works of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, where it places equal blame on all parties for making mistakes. With _Citizen Ruth_, while it's indeed true that everybody's trying to influence a decision that should be up to the individual, it doesn't quite seem to recognize that some parties have more authentic arguments than others. Still, I was quite enjoying the wild, unpredictable ride it takes us on. It constantly keeps upping the ante and escalates to a ridiculous climax that works perfectly with the tone of the film. Just know that if you're looking for something with more depth and nuance about this topic, maybe watch something like _4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days_ instead.

6/10