I generally think of movies like Ask Dr. Ruth as “disposable,” not in the sense that they’re garbage—some of them are pretty good!—but in the sense that they are, to use the parlance, “basic.” Straightahead subject profiles don’t take much other than a willingness to get up close with the subject, as well as access enough to get up close with the subject; they also, and this is necessary to acknowledge to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings, require that the filmmaker be the kind of person who can get that close to a subject without spooking ’em. Not everyone has that disposition. Ryan White clearly does.
But this isn’t really his movie because Dr. Ruth Westheimer is such a dynamo, so I stand by my ultimate conclusion that making Ask Dr. Ruth was probably pretty much a breeze for him (though he is welcome to say otherwise, as only he can speak to his own experiences).
You can read my review over at Paste Magazine.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/04/ask-dr-ruth.html
A Constant Visual Feast 