Shadows on the Wall | Showing Up

Showing Up

dir Kelly Reichardt
scr Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
prd Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani
with Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, Maryann Plunkett, John Magaro, Andre Benjamin, Judd Hirsch, Amanda Plummer, Matt Malloy, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, Denzel Rodriguez, Eudora Peterson
release US 7.Apr.23,
UK 15.Dec.23
22/US A24 1h47

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Loosely structured with offhanded scenes and characters, this lightly comical film traces the impact of both personal and professional events on an artist who's trying to create something special. Even if the narrative feels meandering and a bit aimless, filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and actor Michelle Williams are terrific at working together to capture knowing details on-screen. And the wry tone of this quirky movie makes it worth a look.

Preparing for a community art show in Portland that's being organised by her mother (Plunkett), sculptor Lizzy (Williams) finds herself at odds with her landlord, rival artist Jo (Chau), who refuses to fix her hot water supply. When Jo rescues a pigeon that was mauled by Lizzy's cat, she leaves Lizzy to care for it. Meanwhile, Lizzy's rather flippant dad (Hirsch) asks her to look in on her troubled brother (Magaro), who is working on something in his garden. Then as she readies her ceramic figures for her exhibition, there's a problem with the kiln.

Often feeling like a documentary, the camera simply observes interaction between Lizzy and a range of intriguing people who live in her orbit, and snippets of conversation reveal their complex inter-connections. Scenes roll out in an almost fatalistic juxtaposition, shifting between Lizzy sculpting expressive figures in her studio as various things keep distracting her attention. It's not easy to see a point in all of this, other than a slice of life that looks at the hard work of making art and maintaining relationships at the same time.

Because of the film's tone, performances are remarkably understated. Williams is terrific as a woman whose big feelings are churning under the surface, and her prickly interaction with Chau runs through the heart of the film. Their disconnection gives the film a hint of an edge, even if their emotions are bottled up. There isn't much else that the viewer can grab hold of, but each of the side characters feels like a very real person with life issues that we can't see.

Almost everyone has artistic aspirations of some kind that are complicated by their daily situations. But the story is so unstructured that it becomes a free-flowing mash-up of family drama, goofy comedy and art world satire. None of these genres ever quite takes over, but there are lovely moments scattered throughout the film that make it memorable and even meaningful. Especially as a reminder that both creativity and anxiety are things we all have in common.

themes, language, nudity 5.Dec.23

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