Film

Ask Dr. Ruth

Name: Ask Dr. Ruth
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2019
Cast: Ruth Westheimer, Pierre Lehu, Cliff Rubin, Greg Willenborg, Miriam Westheimer

Biopic

A portrait of Dr. Ruth Westheimer as she approaches ninety, interweaving her harrowing survival of the Holocaust with her improbable rise as America's most candid sex therapist. The film watches an elderly woman of unshakeable warmth reckon with trauma and triumph, refusing to let either define her completely. Intimate, funny, and deeply moving.

TMDb rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like life stories built around one vivid, opinionated person, and you don't mind a warm documentary that moves between laughter and old grief without tidying either up.

Skip it if you want a tight, investigative doc with a clear argument; this one is more affectionate tribute than probing analysis, and its sweetness can feel loose.

What it asks of you: A brisk hundred minutes, mostly her voice and face, at a gentle pace that lets painful memories land without being hurried past them.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Won't You Be My Neighbor?2018

Another documentary portrait of a broadcaster who changed culture through radical kindness. Like Dr. Ruth, it finds the human depth beneath a beloved public figure, and asks what it costs to care so visibly.

But If you're watching for newsy biography or scandal, it's quieter and more meditative than that. The pacing trusts silence.

The Toys That Made Us2017

A Netflix series that finds the emotional and historical weight in objects and people you thought you knew. Each episode is a miniature documentary portrait about legacy, invention, and what lasts.

But Very Netflix in tone—slick, reverential, occasionally overselling its subjects' importance. Not every episode lands equally.

The Social Dilemma2020

Another film about someone who tried to change how people talk about intimate things in public. It examines the gap between intention and consequence with the same gentle intelligence.

But It's fundamentally more anxious than Ask Dr. Ruth. If you want warmth, this is colder and more paranoid.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ask Dr. Ruth

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Act of Killing2012

Both films ask the hardest question: how do you live with what you've done, or what was done to you? Both refuse easy answers.

A documentary that turns its camera on perpetrators rather than survivors, asking them to perform their own atrocities. Like Ask Dr. Ruth, it finds unsettling humanity in people who've done unthinkable things, but from the opposite angle—not healing but reckoning.

But It's genuinely disturbing and formally difficult. Some will find it exploitative; others will find it unbearable.

Iris2014

A documentary about the artist Iris Apfel approaching ninety, full of joy and unapologetic idiosyncrasy. It celebrates a life lived loudly, with the same affection for its subject's undiminished spark.

But The aesthetic is fashion-world precious in ways that may not engage you. It's more about style than substance.

The Queen of Versailles2012

A documentary that follows a wealthy couple through financial collapse, capturing vulnerability and resilience. Like Ask Dr. Ruth, it finds unexpected humanity in a public persona.

But It's often uncomfortable in ways that feel voyeuristic. The subjects become less sympathetic as it goes.

Three Kings1999

A Gulf War film that uses dark comedy and humanity to examine trauma, survival, and moral compromise. It has Dr. Ruth's refusal to sentimentalize suffering.

But It's a war film, so it's violent and structurally messier. The tonal shifts may feel jarring if you want something gentler.

Moonlight2016

A narrative film structured like a documentary of a life—intimate, poetic, attentive to how people survive and love. It has Ask Dr. Ruth's emotional precision and refusal to judge.

But It's formally experimental and very slow. If you want plot momentum, you won't find it here.

Raging Bull1980

Both are about people shaped by pain—Dr. Ruth transcends hers through connection; De Niro's character is destroyed by his inability to. They're mirror images of survival.

Scorsese's black-and-white study of a man whose violence, jealousy, and self-destruction are inseparable from his brilliance. It's a portrait of someone broken by what happened to him, unable to heal—the inverse of Dr. Ruth's arc.

But It's punishing and repetitive by design. The violence is intimate and nasty. This is not cathartic or uplifting.