Showing Up (12A)

Kelly Reichardt’s fourth collaboration with Michelle Williams is a comedy about a sculptor on the verge of a career breakthrough juggling creativity with the messiness of life. Lizzy, a notably unglamourised Williams, is a figurative artist under pressure to prepare for an exhibition in Portland. Through the quiet, chaotic environment of her home studio as she works, and the tetchy, funny interactions with her parents, her more brilliant brother and her breezy landlord, fellow artist Jo – who Lizzy feels constantly shows her up – we come somehow to inhabit her world. It’s a portrait of the artist refreshingly distant from, and far more rewarding than, the tropes of the tormented genius.

“Together, Reichardt and Williams – with little dialogue and boundless generosity – [turn] this wondrous, determined, gloriously grumpy woman into a sublime work of art.” Manohla Darghis, New York Times

Preview courtesy of Universal