Showing Up

I am a big fan of Kelly Reichardt's brooding and contemplative character studies so I ended up back at the Broadway last night for her latest, Showing Up, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  Lizzy (Michelle Williams) is a Portland-based sculptor who is preparing for the first small showing of her work during one chaotic week.  In addition to creating several new pieces, she must continue working her day job at the Oregon College of Art and Craft as an administrative assistant for her mother Jean (Maryann Plunkett).  She is feuding with her landlord and friend Jo (Hong Chau), who is also preparing for her own much bigger shows, and is worried that her eccentric father Bill (Judd Hirsch) is being taken advantage of by his perpetual house guests and that her mentally ill brother Sean (John Magaro) is having a manic episode.  She is frustrated because, even though her colleague Eric (Andre Benjamin) is extremely helpful, she has no control over the firing of her pieces.  Finally, her work is disrupted by a wounded pigeon (which serves as a metaphor for Lizzy's creative life in an incredibly exhilarating scene) that she is roped into caring for.  Ultimately, it is this chaos that inspires her work and I really enjoyed the theme that great art sometimes requires a struggle.  This, like all of Reichardt's movies, is a very slow burn but it is full of multiple layers (that I am still trying to unwrap) and it is surprisingly funny.  Williams gives an incredibly restrained and subtle performance (which I prefer to the overwrought one she gives in The Fabelmans) and Chau steals every scene she is in as the foil to Williams' character.  I liked this quite a bit!