Kelly Reichardt is an acclaimed American indie filmmaker whose best films for me were the modernist westerns “Meek’s Cutoff” and the latest “First Cow”, and the humorous drama with which she presented herself in the main program of Cannes was not exactly a film to my taste. After a short break, Reichardt again hired Michelle Williams in the main role, even for the fourth time, and she is the sculptor Lizzy, whose exhibition should be installed soon. And we meet that Williams in a rather atypical, almost paternal version as an antisocial weirdo who behaves and behaves much older than her age, and it seems that her life seems rather monotonous and boring, devoid of content, and at the moments when her exhibition is to be set up, the car looks as if it will go further downhill.
It’s more of a minimalist drama than a humorous, somewhat introspective story about a woman who seems to feel invisible, but to a large extent she herself is to blame for that, because she doesn’t seem to be the most pleasant company. She is constantly in some quarrel with the landlady, also an artist Jo (Hong Chau), she seems disappointed with life and the fact that she has never left the shadow of her famous father, also a weirdo, but eccentric, funnier guy and younger brother Sean (John Magaro), also talented an artist who slightly leans towards madness.
Lizzy’s already busy schedule will be further complicated when Jo introduces her to an injured pigeon, which will get on her nerves terribly at first, but over time, this pigeon with a broken wing seems to start turning into her best friend. It is a film about a woman who reviews her life, her relationships with other people, the work she does, and who seems to feel somehow trapped in her life and no matter what she does, she is unable to get out of the rut. I can’t say that “Showing Up” particularly delighted me, and it is a slow-paced film shot with a camera in a somewhat retro style, which nevertheless belongs to the lower house of the creativity of this independent author.