MOVIE: On the Basis of Sex

Paul O’Rourke

THE latest offering from that new “important” genre of film that you really must go and see whether you like it or not, is hitting cinemas this weekend.

‘On the Basis of Sex’ tells the real life story of US supreme court judge, Ruth Ginsburg, as she takes a gender discrimination case to the US court of appeals. 

The film is well acted with Felicity Jones in the leading role, Armie Hammer as her husband, and a supporting cast that includes Kathy Bates, Sam Waterston and our very own Jack Reynor. 

It does, however, come up against a number of key roadblocks.

Firstly there already exists and excellent documentary, ‘RBG’, which tells you all you need to know about the celebrated lawyer. 

And while the producers may argue that this film contains an important message about gender discrimination, it’s handled in an often ham-fisted and cliched fashion. 

Finally, there just seems something inherently wrong with attempting to make a hero out of a lawyer. Male or female, they’re just not that sexy. 

Overall, it’s worth a watch, but falls short of something special and we award it a review score of 3 middling stars.    

‘The Kid who Would be King’ is an interesting take on the King Arthur tale which focuses on a young English schoolkid called Alex who discovers and pulls out the Excalibur sword. 

He then assembles a band of knights and goes on a journey, aided by the wizardly Merlin, to destroy the wicked Morgana and save Britain. 

The performances are at best average, not helped by the cheesy script and plot holes, which you could drive a van full of round tables through. 

There is no indication for example of what Alex is saving Britain from, and the final battle consists of hundreds of terrifying ghostly sword bearing ghouls on horseback that fail to injure, let alone kill, a single soul. 

This would have been fine as a BBC TV drama 30 years ago, but today it doesn’t cut the mustard and we award it a disappointing review score of 2.5 dethroned stars.