--- title: "Time" year: 2020 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/time" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 85 critics_reviews: 19 published: "2026-09-17T05:41:38.170481+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T05:41:53.307704+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Time (2020) Directed by Garrett Bradley · 1h 21m · MPA PG-13 · Documentary **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 85 from 19 reviews *In a sentence:* She raises six boys and a legal campaign on camera; the state, meanwhile, puts her on hold > Garrett Bradley folds two decades of one family’s home video into a black-and-white portrait of a wife waiting for a prison to give her husband back. It is short, exact and quietly furious. Anyone wanting the facts of the case laid out will have to look elsewhere. ## Synopsis Louisiana, the late 1990s. Sibil Fox Richardson, known as Fox Rich, and her husband Robert Fox Richardson are arrested after an armed robbery. She serves her time and comes home; he is given 60 years. Left to raise six sons, among them Remington B. Richardson, Laurence M. Richardson, Mahlik Richardson and the twins Freedom Richardson and Justus Richardson, she buys a camcorder and starts recording the family for a husband who cannot see them. Garrett Bradley picks up the story two decades on, as Fox Richardson runs a public campaign for his release, rings the courthouse for news of a judge’s ruling, and speaks to halls of strangers about what the years have cost, while the boys on the old tapes turn into men. ## Review Sibil Fox Richardson, known on screen and off as Fox Rich, has been waiting for her husband since the 1990s. Robert Fox Richardson is serving 60 years in a Louisiana prison for an armed robbery the two of them committed together; she did her own time and came out to six sons and a camcorder. Garrett Bradley’s film is what she did with the camcorder, added to what Bradley’s crew shot of the family two decades later, cut together and drained of colour. It runs 81 minutes. It is one of the plainest and most affecting films about prison we have seen, and it hardly sets foot inside one. The idea is simple and the execution is not. Gabriel Rhodes, the editor, does not sort the footage by year. A boy of five in a car seat is followed by the same boy shaving. Fox Richardson at thirty, in low resolution, talking to the lens as if it were her husband, is followed by Fox Richardson at fifty in a suit, talking to a room. Bradley has had the old tape turned to black and white so it sits beside the new material shot by Zac Manuel, Nisa East and Justin Zweifach, and the join is close to invisible. After ten minutes you stop noticing which decade you are in. For this family there has only ever been the one long day. The scene we will not forget is a telephone call. Fox Richardson rings the court to ask whether a judge has ruled on her husband’s case. She is put on hold. She waits, in her kitchen, and the camera stays on her face for the whole of it, and when a clerk finally returns to say there is no news she thanks the woman and wishes her a blessed day. Then she puts the receiver down and says what she thinks of the judge. We laughed at that, and then we were angry, and stayed angry for a long while after, because the whole film is in that call. Twenty years of good manners spent on people who never rang back. She is a formidable subject and she knows it. Fox Richardson prays on camera, drills her sons in what to say and how to stand, and gives a speech to a hall full of people about a country that calls itself free and keeps a great many of its citizens locked up. She is as composed in front of Bradley’s crew as she was in front of her own. The sons are quieter and, in places, harder to watch. Freedom Richardson and Justus Richardson grow up on the tapes from infants to young men who talk about their father with a steadiness no one their age should have needed. Robert Fox Richardson himself is mostly an absence: a voice on a phone, a name in a letter, the person every tape is addressed to. The music, credited to Jamieson Shaw and Edwin Montgomery, is largely a single piano, and it plays under nearly everything. That is a lot of piano. It does not rise when the film wants you to cry, though, and we were grateful; Bradley lets the faces do that work. What the film will not do is explain. We never learn in any detail what happened at the robbery, how a 60-year sentence was arrived at, what the appeals argued or why one court after another said no. A couple of critics have called this evasive, and we understand the complaint. There is a version of this film with lawyers and a timeline, and it would be easier to argue with. Bradley has decided the legal facts are not the subject. The subject is what the years did. We think she is right, though 81 minutes is brief, and there were moments when we wanted to hear the sons speak at greater length than a montage allows. Documentaries about American prisons tend to argue with numbers. This one has no statistics on screen at all. Where Ava DuVernay’s [*13th*](https://film.one/film/13th) (2016) built a case, Bradley builds a household and lets you notice how much of it is missing. It is the ending that most critics have singled out, and we will say only that it is earned and that we will not describe it. Watch it with your phone in another room. And do not go in expecting the story of a crime. The crime takes about a minute. The punishment takes the rest. *Fi1m score 84, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are almost unanimous in their approval, and most of the praise goes the same way: to Fox Rich, whose presence and voice hold the film together, and to Garrett Bradley’s decision to fold two decades of her home videos into new black-and-white footage. Critics describe the result as lyrical, intimate and poetic, a portrait of a family living around a long prison sentence rather than a film about the prison system. The editing, which moves back and forth across the years, is singled out often. The few reservations cluster in one place. The Playlist argues that the fixation on poetry comes at the cost of basic facts about the crime and the sentence, and HeyUGuys finds the short running time leaves the ideas underexplored. The Times is warmer but still calls it an arty memory piece. Otherwise the spread is narrow, with most critics landing at the same high mark. ### Reviews we read (19) - **The Independent**, Mark Kennedy (4/4): The critic praises the unrushed, intimate documentary style that captures wasted time, loss, patience and an unjust system through the story of a woman fighting for her husband's release while raising their family. They single out the film's poetic, moving final moments and the central figure's formidable presence as highlights of terrific filmmaking. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/film-review-time-a-terrific-look-at-the-pull-of-loss-woman-woman-husband-phone-loss-b814883.html) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (A): Calls it a poignant and monumental portrait of mass incarceration in America, a profoundly moving story of hope captured through home video. Singles out the woman's 20-year fight to free her husband. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/time-review-documentary-garrett-bradley-1202208104/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (90/100, inferred): ‘Time’ is a wrenching story of love and injustice and one of 2020’s great documentaries. It is an artful puzzle and hypnotic game of chronological hopscotch held together by Rich’s remarkable voice, with joy and success making the loss more acute. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-10-08/time-review-garrett-bradley-documentary) - **RogerEbert.com**, Odie Henderson (90/100, inferred): The film is a beautiful and haunting documentary that reminds viewers there is a human being behind prison numbers, loved and missed. It enlists empathy while documenting the effects of a corrupt system on the Richardsons through home movies and present-day footage, refusing to be tragedy porn. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/time-movie-review-2020) - **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Bradley’s intimate documentary as a powerful distillation of lives divided by incarceration, highlighting its kaleidoscopic structure and focus on the family left behind, particularly the resilience of Fox Rich and her sons. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/time-garrett-bradley-family-incarceration-separation) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Sheri Linden (90/100, inferred): Praises the concise and impressionistic account of love, waiting, and the fight to keep a family whole amid the justice system. Singles out the poetic details, black-and-white imagery, and the matriarchal fury of the central figure. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/time-review-1271894/) - **Time Out**, Whelan Barzey (5 out of 5 stars): The critic calls it a remarkable documentary delivering heart-rending candour about one family’s experiences with the US prison system, praising its intimate portrayal and message about the power of love and time. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/time) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (90/100, inferred): Director Garrett Bradley combines vérité observation with 18 years of home videos to make a longitudinal study of incarceration’s effects on an American family. The cumulative impact will almost certainly rewire how Americans think about the prison-industrial complex, revealing how communities are worse off for ripping families apart. [Read](https://variety.com/2020/film/festivals/time-review-sundance-1203490243/) - **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): Calls it an extraordinary documentary that folds together years of home-movie footage for a glimpse into activist Fox Rich’s fight. Singles out the collaboration with the family and the intensely personal details of love and loss. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/movie-review-garrett-bradleys-documentary-time.html) - **Slant Magazine** (3.5/4): Praises the oblique but morally forceful look at Black lives undone by the prison system. Singles out the home-video diaries that remind viewers that behind court procedures are actual lives existing in human time. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/time-review-garrett-bradley/) - **The AV Club**, A.A. Dowd (B+): Finds it a lyrical documentary about a family coping with a long prison sentence on both sides of the bars. Singles out the achronological structure collapsing past and present and the beautifully shot meditation on time and emotional shifts. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/a-family-copes-with-a-long-prison-sentence-on-both-side-1845318158) - **Empire**, Ian Freer (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a thought-provoking take on the impact of imprisonment on families and communities, highlighting its blend of poetic video diaries and contemporary footage. They single out the resilience of long-lasting love and Black female courage as the core strengths in this moving and angry documentary. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/time/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (80/100, inferred): The film is an extraordinarily intimate, lyrical portrait of a family enduring the toll of long-term incarceration, using interwoven home movies and new footage in black and white to show a mother's resilience and the passage of time. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/18/time-review-poetic-documentary-about-a-family-torn-apart-by-prison) - **The Times**, Tom Shone (★★★): The documentary offers an arty, prismatic memory piece about a couple imprisoned after a robbery, focusing on the wife's determination and the family's life in the husband's absence through beautiful black-and-white footage and home videos. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/film-reviews-black-bear-time-0bnz6fkwk) - **Collider** (85/100, inferred): The critic calls Garrett Bradley’s documentary a damning portrait of mass incarceration and modern slavery in America, focusing on Fox Rich’s 21-year fight to free her husband. It singles out the film’s examination of the human cost to families and the injustice of the prison system for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/time-documentary-amazon-review-fox-rich/) - **The Wrap**, Steve Pond (85/100, inferred): The critic praises 'Time' as an elegant, artful, and poetic meditation on family and humanity rather than a straightforward issue film about incarceration. They single out the virtuoso editing that juxtaposes new footage with two decades of home movies for its emotional impact. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/time-film-review-elegant-doc-focuses-on-families-affected-by-incarceration/) - **Eye for Film**, Stephanie Brown (4/5): Praises Bradley’s direction for emphasizing the family's resilience and humanity, and highlights Fox Rich's emotional nudity and campaign against systemic racism. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/time-2020-film-review-by-stephanie-brown) - **HeyUGuys**, Adam Solomons (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the documentary compelling and does what it sets out to do well, praising the use of footage to illustrate the cruelty of the justice system, but notes it doesn't delve deep enough into themes due to its short length. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/time-review/) - **The Playlist**, Kevin Jagernauth (C): Criticizes the film for being fixated on poetic elements at the expense of addressing key details about the crime and incarceration, leaving it uneven and incomplete. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/time-review-sundance-20200127/) ## Details - **Director:** Garrett Bradley - **Director:** Garrett Bradley - **Cinematography:** Nisa East, Zac Manuel, Justin Zweifach - **Editor:** Gabriel Rhodes - **Music:** Edwin Montgomery, Jamieson Shaw - **Producer:** Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley - **Cast:** Sibil Fox Richardson as Self; Robert Fox Richardson as Self; Freedom Richardson as Self; Justus Richardson as Self; Laurence M. Richardson as Self; Mahlik Richardson as Self; Remington B. Richardson as Self; Robert G. Richardson as Self - **Runtime:** 1h 21m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 9 October 2020 - **Genres:** Documentary - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq6Hh07oLvs ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: free, uhd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Documentary 2020: Sundance U.S. Directing Award: Documentary (won) ## If you liked this - *13th* (2016): DuVernay makes the argument with statistics that Bradley makes with a kitchen phone - *Hale County This Morning, This Evening* (2018): Another patient, unnarrated portrait of Black family life in the American South - *Hoop Dreams* (1994), Fi1m 92: Two Chicago boys filmed over years; the long view does the arguing — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hoop-dreams.md) - *A Sun* (2019): A Taiwanese family absorbs one son’s prison sentence; fiction, but the same weight - *Stories We Tell* (2012), Fi1m 77: Sarah Polley cuts old home video into a family portrait that keeps changing shape — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/stories-we-tell.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/time