A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt’s vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft. It is a deceptively simple drama about an artist’s life. 2022, USA, 107 minutes, rated R for brief nudity
“The story of Lizzy (Michelle Williams), a sculptor in Portland, Oregon, who’s preparing to exhibit at a local gallery—is an instant classic of a life in art.” – The New Yorker
“What initially seems to be a slice-of-life drama eventually reveals itself as a paean to the difficulties, and rewards, of making art.” – The Atlantic
“This, in movie form, is one idea of what it’s like to make and think about art; its meaning can seem to pass through our skin, a mysterious vibration.” – TIME
“Not since Amadeus has there been a movie so rooted in the realities of working and making art, and all the torture and pleasure that comes with such a trade.” – The Wrap
“It’s sometimes been said that making art is thinking made visible. In her latest film, “Showing Up,” Kelly Reichardt, the director of 2019’s First Cow and virtuosa of slow cinema, turns her thoughtful attention to the act of creation itself, rendering both its transcendence and mundanity with equal curiosity.” – Washington Post
“The film is certainly not the first to hold the creative process up to scrutiny: its agonies and ecstasies, false starts and alchemical transformation of abject failure into — well, more interesting failure. But it is one of the best, in a medium that consistently gets art dead wrong, too often forsaking patience for the moviemaking shorthand of showing the flash of genius as, say, Jackson Pollock discovering drip painting literally overnight, in one alcohol-and-insomnia-fueled burst of discovery.” – Washington Post
“Anything creative requires labor, whether the end result soars into the stratosphere or falls flat on its face, and that’s the part this portrait of an artist wants you to recognize. The finger of divinity touching your forehead may grant you an idea. It’s the callouses on your hands that make it a reality.” – Rolling Stone
“Critic’s Pick.” “This is the fourth movie that they’ve done together (their first was Wendy and Lucy), and it’s a joy to witness how perfectly aligned their work has become. Together, Reichardt and Williams — with little dialogue and boundless generosity — lucidly articulate everything that Lizzy will never say and need not say, opening a window on the world and turning this wondrous, determined, gloriously grumpy woman into a sublime work of art.” – The New York Times
“Deftly, Showing Up leaves unresolved the familial, creative, professional, and interpersonal matters at its core, staying true to its vision of an artistic environment perpetually caught between modest comfort and precariousness.” – Slant
“This beautifully acted, expertly modulated film is a work of such enveloping gentleness that even the worst crises are simply absorbed into the fabric of life and work. While the ending might have been corny in a less subtle director’s hands, here it’s quietly restorative. We don’t deserve Kelly Reichardt.” – Hollywood Reporter
