According to many critics whom I trust the opinion of Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up has been one of the more overlooked and underrated gems of the critical film year, hence of course I took it upon myself to see what all the fuss (or lack of fuss) was about. I with regret cannot join in the praise and found Showing Up to be a very competently made and interesting on the surface film that is so desperately without satisfaction or actual intrigue for me. This is my first exposure to Reichardt as a film-maker and although patient cinema is not something I am opposed to in any way, I did indeed find the majority of Showing Up and certainly the overall final product a very tiring and even trying experience to sit through.
There is good
in Showing Up, make no mistake there. I could even say that there is
plenty of good, but I don’t exactly feel that to be true. Reichardt and Jon
Raymond’s screenplay following a sculpture artist who is repeatedly diverted
away from her work by her family and her job has the bones of something
interesting. The overall conceit of our lead character Lizzy constantly having
things crop up, whether they be minor or major, does have a nice throughline to
it, however it’s never maximalised upon narratively in any way. Now that is not
at all the film that is being made here. This is a film wholly of intention and
it is intentionally slow, realistic, pained and un-eventful. The film does
build to a somewhat climatic final sculpture show, with a few of the strands
coming together and impacting each other, but it all just feels like too
little, too late. The film just has very little to grasp onto to make it a
fully enjoyable experience to watch, or rather an interesting one for that
matter. Again; this is by design, but’s not an entertaining design and I didn’t
even find it to be a particularly interesting design. The performances of the
film are all tender and quiet and solid, but again never go anywhere or have
any major impact. They’re all incredibly realistic, but it’s nothing I want to
rave about or even have much to say about. Yes, Michelle Williams is her
sublime self, but it’s with a character whose moments are quiet and sometimes
even come off as largely emotionless. Williams is the centre of the film and
just wanders through scene to scene procrastinating or in artistic anguish, but
the anguish never builds or bursts or goes anywhere. Everybody is solid, but
not really doing anything special or of interest. Hong Chau, Maryann Plunkett,
Judd Hirsch and John Magaro too all give interesting and good supporting
performances and are in many ways given more to do than our lead in Williams is
and one can see a vision of this film with our blank artist going through her
life and in and out of interactions with larger figures – in many ways that’s
what Showing Up is. But is it an interesting version of that? For me, I
regret not.
A slow trying 4/10. No matter how patient the film is by design, it still remains to be an actually enjoyable experience for me watching it. There is wit there and there is a clear message and the Sahara dry humour does sometimes land and the emotional dramatic beats have a weight to them from time to time, but overall the film can’t help but feel slight, plodding and… I’m sorry… boring.
P.S. There is of course a part of me that does wish to investigate the other work of Reichardt, afterall she is a very acclaimed film-maker and perhaps this film alone was just not for me, however this film did not burrow into me any appeal to view a First Cow or a Meeks Cutoff. Again, with regret I feel.
P.P.S Above all else – and I certainly preferred this film – the slow, droll nature of this film and its solid performances in an interesting world that I wish was better explored reeked of Nomadland. Of course there is the factor of immense critical acclaim for a film that was not enjoyable for me at all, that also reeks of Nomadland.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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