“I’m enjoying my retirement. I get up. I do a little of this. I do a little of that and then it’s time to watch TV again,” says a character played by Judd Hirsch in Kelly Reichardt’s new movie “Showing Up.” And if that sounds exciting, then this is the movie for you. Like all of Ms. Reichardt’s movies, “Showing Up” is understated and slow moving, but holds itself with a strong sense of self-assuredness.
That assuredness borders on the farcical here given the almost entire lack of conflict and/or plot. Our main character, Lizzy, played by Michelle Williams, is a sculptor that has a show opening in a week. It doesn’t appear like it will be that big of a deal. She lives and works in an artistic community and seemingly everyone has some type of show opening at some point. One character named Eric, (inexplicably but capably played by Andre 3000 of Outkast fame) is the sort of person that finds a way to love something about anything. As an example, he mans the kiln at the school and when he burns one of Lizzy’s sculptures, declares that he thinks the burn makes it look even better.
Much of the movie is spent concerning itself with Lizzy’s efforts to get her family to show up at her show and/or bother her landlord Jo (another artist played by Hong Chau) to fix her apartment’s hot water boiler. About twenty minutes into the movie, there was what I thought was a throw away scene when Lizzy finds a pigeon has broken into her house and hurt its wing. This pigeon and Lizzy’s attempts to care for it provide the majority of the drama for the rest of the movie. The remainder of the drama occurs when her family members actually do show up at her show and it becomes readily apparent why the parents are divorced and her brother (played by John Magaro) probably shouldn’t be in public at all. But then the scene deescalates without a big fuss and the movie ends shortly thereafter. It all turns out okay and everyone goes on with their lives.
Did I like this movie? Well, let me just say that it is not on the level of “First Cow.” The sculptures, and other art created in the movie certainly could have been better. Will I see Kelly Reichardt’t next movie? Yeah, I expect I’ll be showing up.
