Ask Dr. Ruth Quick View Won’t You Be My Neighbor on Opposite Day Grade: B+

Source: IMDB

Ask Dr. Ruth is a documentary featuring the most well known sex therapist of all time Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Watch as we go through times, where Ruth had to triumph through tragedies, her marriages, rise from radio to television, as well as Ruth became a strong political figure without mentioning her views in politics. Hulu over the years has been putting out some dope documentaries, whether it be Gilbert or last years Oscar nominated film Minding the Gap, the quality and interest in these documentaries have been impressive. Well you can add Ask Dr. Ruth on to that impressive collection, I really enjoyed this documentary. Couple flaws to quickly mention. I felt the structure wasn’t constructed properly, we go through Ruth’s life story then it cuts to her television footage, I would’ve liked it all in order. The style really feels like a documentary so it wasn’t impressive to me, it starts to get to you when we’re shown image after image as someone talks over the images. The film had taught me a great amount of not only on this celebrity figure, but it also taught me in her profession sex is actually taken very seriously, where it can lead to stress and even suicidal thoughts which that surprised me. We see patients on the telephone and in person, claim that Dr. Ruth saved their lives... Like I didn’t know how much people stress about their performance in the bedroom. As Dr. Ruth went onto explain solutions to the guest or patients problems, you start to get the sense of where the stress can come from when it comes to sex, that normally I would think it wasn’t a big deal. Ruth’s life story was inspiring, this woman literally went through the Holocaust, with barely any resources of education cause the orphanage home she was staying in wouldn’t allow women to educate themselves above middle school as they had to be maids, but she still found a way to educate herself due to having a boyfriend. Just truly amazing how this woman just kept herself up and strong, as she was always eager to learn and thrive for a great life. Dr. Ruth’s character can be comparable to Mister Rogers in a way, a extremely nice loving human being that wanted to help everyone around her and didn’t care if they were different. She believed no one was normal so it was best to respect and love everyone around her. She also took risks, of talking about a subject matter in explicit detail not many would be open to talk about. Talking about sex and human beings private parts always made me feel uncomfortable, but Dr. Ruth... Oh not Dr. Ruth, she’s not afraid of the challenge as she’s open to all your wildest questions. I did like this films simple painting animation, it looked nice and it carried Dr. Ruth’s early stages of her life story. Overall, Ask Dr. Ruth was a pretty good documentary. I highly recommend this film, it shall make you learn and even inspire you. -Mitch Smietana