Kelly Reichardt is one of our finest working writer/directors. Michelle Williams is an actor operating at the very top of her game.
When they come together, we are very lucky indeed.
In Showing Up, Williams is a ceramics artist who is struggling to complete the amount of work needed for an upcoming exhibition. Obviously, her art doesn’t support her because she is doing a frustrating admin job at her mother’s art school.
She is also distracted by domestic matters. Her apartment – sublet from another artist played by Hong Chau – has no hot water. Her cat has injured a bird and she is nursing it back to health because she feels so guilty. her father (Judd Hirsch) has befriended some couch surfers and she is concerned they are taking advantage of him.
And her brother (John Magaro from First Cow and Past Lives) is suffering from mental illness and is digging a hole in his back garden.
I reviewed Showing Up for RNZ’s At the Movies just before Christmas and loved it:
Showing Up is about being an artist and how inexplicable that impulse can be, even to yourself. That the compulsion to make art isn’t a sign of mental illness per se but that it is on a delusional spectrum. At one point, the character Eric (played by André Benjamin from OutKast) talks for a snippet about “the flow” of creativity and how it takes him over.
Lizzy, unfortunately, finds it hard to reach that state because she is too frustrated by the real world. Michelle Williams is a remarkable actress, getting better with every performance and every year. With Reichardt, she has the perfect foil. Someone who wants to tell stories and illuminate character through the minimalist, onion skin layers that a great actor can offer you.
If you’ve seen any Kelly Reichardt before – Wendy and Lucy, Certain Women, First Cow – then this is a one hundred percent recommendation.
You can listen to the Showing Up segment here, or the whole episode (also featuring Wonka and Chicken Run: Rise of the Nugget) here.
Where to watch Showing Up
Aotearoa and Australia Streaming on Netflix
Canada: Streaming on Hoopla
USA: Streaming on Fubo, Paramount+, Showtime and Hoopla
UK: Digital rental from Apple, Amazon, Google, YouTube or Rakuten
Further listening
Last Friday night Mark Leishman was sitting in for Emile Donovan on RNZ Nights and we chatted about Monkey Man, Tales from the Loop and relaxing YouTube videos.