RBG arrives with the advantage of an extraordinary subject and does not squander it. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, is a figure whose legal career, advocacy, and late-life cultural emergence provide more material than most documentaries are given.

Julie Cohen and Betsy West structure the film around Ginsburg’s career as an ACLU litigator, making clear that her strategic approach to equal protection law was as important to American jurisprudence as her Supreme Court opinions. The choice of cases, often brought on behalf of male plaintiffs, was deliberate: she was building precedent through the path of least resistance.

The film has access to Ginsburg directly, in interviews that are candid and warm. Her relationship with her late husband Martin Ginsburg, who consistently subordinated his career to hers, is treated with real affection and genuine observation.

RBG is honest, illuminating, and clearly made with love for its subject. It is a good documentary and it is about a great person.