A formally inventive, deeply moving documentary about incarceration, endurance, and the emotional cost of waiting. It turns private home videos and present-tense observation into an epic love story and a sharp indictment of the prison system.
74% ★★★★☆ (33,599)
Time
Where to watch: Amazon
Movie · Documentary · PG-13
2020 · 1h 21m · ★ 74% (33.6K)
Director: Garrett Bradley
Starring: Sibil Fox Richardson, Robert Fox Richardson, Freedom Richardson
Overview
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
Director
Garrett Bradley
Production
Concordia Studio, Hedgehog Films, Outer Piece, The New York Times
Cast
Sibil Fox Richardson, Robert Fox Richardson, Freedom Richardson, Justus Richardson, Laurence M. Richardson, Mahlik Richardson, Remington B. Richardson, Robert G. Richardson
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A formally inventive, deeply moving documentary about incarceration, endurance, and the emotional cost of waiting. It turns private home videos and present-tense observation into an epic love story and a sharp indictment of the prison system.
Best for
Viewers interested in social-issue documentaries
Fans of intimate, character-driven nonfiction
People drawn to stories about family resilience and justice
Viewers who appreciate strong editing and visual storytelling
Skip if
You want a conventional, fact-heavy investigative documentary
You prefer lighter or more detached nonfiction
You’re looking for a broad overview of the criminal justice system rather than one family’s experience
Overview
Garrett Bradley transforms a single family’s long wait into something vast and devastating. Time is built from fragments: home videos, phone calls, stillness, and the accumulated ache of years. The result feels less like a report than a lived memory, shaped by love, repetition, and the slow violence of incarceration.
Worth noting
What makes the film so powerful is its restraint. Bradley does not over-explain the crime or turn the story into a procedural; instead, she centers Fox Rich’s voice, labor, and stubborn hope. That choice gives the film its emotional force and its political clarity, making the prison system feel not abstract but intimate and ongoing.
Bottom line
The editing is extraordinary, finding rhythm and meaning across decades without losing the human scale. It is a sorrowful film, but also a film about persistence, dignity, and the impossible work of keeping a family intact when the state has tried to break it apart.
Top Letterboxd reviews
davidehrlich (4.5★) · 786 likes
On its surface, Garrett Bradley’s “Time” asks a simple question: How can you convey the full length of 21 years in the span of a single film, let alone a documentary that runs just 81 minutes? And from its degraded opening images — borrowed from the first of a thousand video messages that a black Louisiana woman named Sibil Fox Richardson (aka “Fox Rich”) recorded for her husband as she waited for him to be released from the State Penitentiary
Lucy (4.5★) · 510 likes
NYFF 2020: film #9 "desperate people do desperate things. it’s as simple as that" not only one of the most moving documentaries i've ever seen, but certainly one of the most moving films i've ever seen. overwhelming doesn't even cut it
The Oscar Expert (4.5★) · 363 likes
It's insane that there are people who watched this entire movie and their takeaway is "well, they shouldn't have robbed a bank". The final 10 minutes are so powerful on so many levels. Why are we depriving people of their most basic joys and freedoms with no opportunity for redemption? What does anyone gain from keeping people like Robert in prison? And more importantly, what do we lose from it?
allain♡ · 312 likes
Mass incarceration and unjust prison system really is the definition of modern day slavery. Time is a documentary film that tells the story of Fox Rich and her two decade long fight for the release of her husband, who is currently serving a sixty year sentence in prison. Ever since America was colonized, the minorities, especially the black community, are under extreme scrutiny that even the slightest offense can get them arrested, or even killed. The corruption and prejudice are
KYK (4★) · 307 likes
god, when she says "i want to be as far away from this level of pain for my whole family as i can...so far away that i don't even remember how bad it really hurt." abolish prisons