Waste, Spend, Invest - Time
There is nothing more universal than time. It is the form we all live in and the medium we all record our lives onto. There is no choice in the matter, other than what you do with it. That’s what makes Time so remarkable. It is at once an intimate portrait as well as a loose exploration of the real costs of the passage of time. We can feel the weight of the story applied to our own lives and wonder what we would do if faced with the same set of circumstances.
Sibil Fox Richardson, or Fox as they call her, is an entrepreneur, author and mother of six. She also once robbed a bank. She took a plea deal and only served a few years in prison, while her husband, who did the crime with her, did not take a deal and was sentenced to 60 years. Left to raise their six children on her own, Fox does everything she can to hold it together while standing by her husband and fighting for his release.
The film is a collage that is equal parts home videos and present day interviews. The void Fox’s husband left behind is, in many ways, the main through line of the film. We get to see what he missed and all the ways their lives have been impacted. This is all achieved through a barrage of some of the most beautiful black and white images in film this year.
If you are looking for a procedural drama, this isn’t that. There are very few details about the legal machinations of their cases. There is also, somewhat surprisingly, very little time spent on the inner workings of the family. The multi-generational struggle, the daily tribulations of the children, the strain on Fox as a single mother; these are all mostly only alluded to throughout the film’s 81 minute runtime.
Where we spend most of our time is in the in-between moments. We watch Fox push for his release in ways that feel futile and we watch her wait for answers that almost never come. The result is a film that makes its substance its form. This is what time is. It is the passage, whether events or people are there or not.
We have so many phrases that show a misunderstanding of time. “Time is on your side” when time is the most objective force in the universe. “The judge gave him a lot of time,” when what the judge really does is take away time. This film is one of the best crystallizations of the idea of time and will likely make you reconsider what is worthwhile to do with it.
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