On the Basis of Sex is a fictionalized telling of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s time attending law school, teaching at Columbia University, and then trying some of her early game-changing cases. That’s one heck of a premise for a film, so I hate to write the following: It is not very good.
Okay, it’s fine. It wanted to be great, but it’s corny and just… bleh. It’s an Oscar-bait biopic, so of course it’s very stylish and pretty. And it has a lot of those “levitating brain” shots that prestige dramas use, where the protagonist is shot from below her chin, so it looks like her head is floating above everyone else while she gives speeches in lecture halls or courtrooms.