Showing Up

Showtimes May 12 - 18:

Kelly Reichardt has been making minimal Americana since the early 1990s, featuring stories largely about quiet square pegs who don’t easily fit into society’s round holes. In Showing Up, she reunites with actress Michelle Williams, who previously starred in her films Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, and Certain Women. Here, Williams plays Lizzy, a middle-aged ceramicist who’s struggling to put the finishing touches on her latest pieces for a gallery show. Her daily life is a tangle of blurred boundaries: she’s juggling her creative work with paid work at a local art school; she’s tending to the emotional well-being of her increasingly fragmented family, who barely seem to reciprocate the care she delivers; and she’s in a constant back-and-forth relationship with her landlord/friend (a funny and nuanced Hong Chau), who keeps failing to fix her hot water and oddly takes advantage of her generosity by leaving her in charge of a pet bird. With its patient camerawork, precise cutting, and deeply intuitive performances, this delicately humorous drama about the lives of creative artists avoids cliché while coalescing into something remarkable.

(US / 2023 / Directed by Kelly Reichardt)
R / 1 hr 47 mins