Directed by: Kelly Reichardt
Written by: Jonathan Raymond,Kelly Reichardt
Cast: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, Andre Benjamin
Showing Up is a dramedy that is geared toward a very specific audience. The film itself really does verge on pointless, but there are some redeeming factors.
Michelle Williams plays Lizzy, a shy but vocal artist who specializes in sculpting. Showing Up’s main plot is “an artist (Lizzy) on the verge of a career-changing exhibition finds inspiration in the chaos of life.”
My main issue with this film is that nothing felt important. Showing Up begins with Lizzy attempting to create art for her new exhibit happening soon. She then sees Jo played by Hong Chau rolling by with a tire. The audience soon learns that Jo is Lizzy’s landlord and is also a fellow student at Lizzy’s art school. The remainder of the film showcases Lizzy’s trials and tribulations to create new pieces for her exhibit.
The comedy of the film comes in when Lizzy’s family is introduced. Lizzy seems to have a tough time connecting with her mother Jean who runs the art school and often seems worried about her father Bill who was an artist but has since retired. Additionally, Lizzy’s brother Sean is also an artist but seems to have the toughest time adapting to a day-to-day lifestyle.
The connection and disconnection of this family is where most of the “comedy” is in Showing Up. In spite of this though the comedy is delivered in such a dry way that again it feels like the intended audience either relates to this or is aware of this type of humor. I say this because in a theater of maybe 30 people, only two people were laughing during this movie.
As Showing Up progresses, I began to question if this movie really had an intended purpose or focus. Throughout the film, Lizzy continually mentions she has a deadline. However, at no point did anyone or anything in Showing Up feel rushed or even inspired.
Honestly most of the film felt mundane and slow. I can’t help but feel like this was the director’s intention, however. Often art is painstakingly slow to create, and in the grand scheme of things it can be viewed as important to some and useless to others, because art is subjective.
Assuming that is the message of the movie, Kelly Reichardt did a great job directing this film. My main gripe with this style of film though is it felt like I had to know about the art scene and the director’s previous work to be invested in the film.
Overall I stayed for the entirety of Showing Up for Hong Chau and Michelle Williams. They did not disappoint, and the characters they played were new to me. While Showing Up is beautifully shot the imagery doesn’t justify the 108-minute runtime. I would give Showing Up 1 out of 5 stars. A mundane effort and story.
