Showing Up (film)

Showing Up
File:Showing Up film poster.png Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kelly Reichardt
Produced by	Neil Kopp Vincent Savino Anish Savjani
Written by	Jon Raymond Kelly Reichardt
Starring	Michelle Williams Hong Chau Maryann Plunkett John Magaro André Benjamin James Le Gros Judd Hirsch
Music by	Ethan Rose
Cinematography	Christopher Blauvelt
Edited by	Kelly Reichardt
Production company	FilmScience
Distributed by	A24
Release dates	May 27, 2022 (2022-05-27) (Cannes) April 7, 2023 (2023-04-07) (United States)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1.2 million

Showing Up is a 2022 American comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Kelly Reichardt, in her fourth collaboration with actress Michelle Williams. The film focuses on a sculptor managing the competing attentions of her art, her family, her friendships, and her job.

Showing Up premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. The film was released on April 7, 2023, by A24.

Plot

Lizzy is a sculptor and arts administrator assistant for her mother at her alma mater, the Oregon College of Art and Craft. She's also working on a showing of her work, clay sculptures of women in joyful or anguished movement.

Lizzy's landlord and neighbor Jo, a rival artist, frequently spars with her. For days she's continuously reminding her to fix her hot water heater, but Jo prioritizes everything but. Hanging a tire swing and her two upcoming shows take priority.

To have enough time to finish her sulptures, Lizzy takes Tuesday off from work. In the middle of the night, Lizzy's cat maims a pigeon. Jo discovers and rescues it the next morning, before dumping the work of taking care of it on Lizzy.

Lizzy is at first actively resentful before she begins to bond with the bird. She ends up taking it to the vet, which costs her $150. When Jo finally comes for the bird, Lizzy lets her know it distracted her and kept her from her glazing.

Lizzy visits her father at home. She doesn't trust the hippies who have invited themselves to stay with him, who are more grifters than friends. Lizzy discovers that he hasn't had contact with her brother Sean for six months.

Concerned, Lizzy goes to see Sean. He's become reclusive, and is delusional, convined someone is behind his TV antenna not working. Contacting their mom about it, Lizzy believes her brother needs more then just emotional help, but is told he's simply a misunderstood genius.

The weekend right before her show, Lizzy's final piece burns on one side in the kiln. Visiting Sean, he is digging a massive pit in his back yard and insists he's hearing voices, which Lizzy and others choose not to hear. She convinces her mother to come watch him.

Lizzy's mom puts Sean to sleep after he suffers the mental episode. Although it was arranged that he'd come to the show, when she arrives he's not there. Lizzy is nervous, hearing that he's wandered off alone.

At Lizzy's show her family shows up, even Sean, having grabbed the bus. Jo comes and brings the pigeon. It has its bandages removed by two unsupervised girls. Everyone watches as Sean releases the bird and it flies away. Jo and Lizzy go looking for it, but eventually accept it was ready to fly.

Cast

• Michelle Williams as Lizzy
• Hong Chau as Jo
• Maryann Plunkett as Jean
• John Magaro as Sean
• André Benjamin as Eric
• James Le Gros as Ira
• Judd Hirsch as Bill
• Lauren Lakis as Terri
• Denzel Rodriguez as William
• Jean-Luc Boucherot as Peter
• Ted Rooney as Ted
• Heather Lawless as Marlene
• Ben Coonley as Ben
• Chase Hawkins as Alex
• Izabel Mar as Maya
• Matt Malloy as Lee
• Amanda Plummer as Dorothy

Source:

Production

On January 26, 2021, it was announced that Michelle Williams would star in Showing Up, in her fourth collaboration with writer-director Kelly Reichardt after Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff, and Certain Women. In June 2021, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Maryann Plunkett, John Magaro, André Benjamin, Heather Lawless, Amanda Plummer, Larry Fessenden and James Le Gros joined the cast. Principal photography began on June 7, 2021, and concluded on July 15, 2021, in Portland, Oregon.

The project was originally conceived as a biopic of Canadian artist Emily Carr and the 10 years she spent as a landlord hoping it would offer her more free time to work on her art, but instead forced her to paint less. Reichardt said the film officially pivoted away from Carr when she first embarked to Canada to research for the film and "the passport guy asked us what we were doing, and we said, 'We’re coming to research a painter named Emily Carr.' And he goes, 'Oh yeah. We learned about her.' That took the wind out of our sails, that she was so famous."

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 138 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A deceptively simple drama about the artist's life, Showing Up reunites Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams to absorbing effect." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

External links

• Showing Up at IMDb