First impressions of the film Showing Up

Kelly Reichardt's latest plays on a wavelength that will make true artists — artists for whom art-making is life, and who find the world a hostile environment — "feel seen."

Showing Up, the latest film from the consistently compelling, uncompromising imagination of Kelly Reichardt (First Cow, Certain Women, Meek’s Cutoff, Old Joy), stars the great Michelle Williams as Lizzy, a sculpture artist who tries to make progress in her work while also meeting the demands of a bill-paying job — the kind of job almost all artists work out of necessity in order to afford the privilege of making art.

Lizzy is, arguably, better off than some of us who are always striving against daunting challenges to live a life of creativity. She works in an environment surrounded by other artists and art students! Specifically, she works a desk job at the Oregon College of Arts and Craft (an actual art school that recently closed). But an artist who works among other artists also faces distinct challenges. In fact, as I live and work in various circles of visual artists and writers, Lizzy’s challenges are so familiar to me — so specifically and piercingly personal to me — that I emerged from the theater feeling like I’d just suffered through surgery, met with my doctors, and learned that they’d found an incurable disease.

If that sounds like a recommendation, well… that’s because it is.