Director Kelly Reichardt and actress Michelle Williams have created previous films together, two set in Oregon (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cut-off.) Their newest collaboration, Showing Up, is on one level an homage to the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, a much-loved institution nestled in the woods of northwest Portland. Reichardt lets the camera linger on scenes of artists weaving, spinning clay, setting up video installations, and cavorting in the sunlight during a class called Thought and Movement.
That could be the title of the show Lizzie (Williams) is preparing. Her collection of figurines depicts women in poses that range from pensive to ecstatic, charming to a bit disturbing. If only she could finish them. But there are so many others to take care of: a brother who suffers from mental illness, a mother in denial about it, a father so self-absorbed that he can’t see his “friends” take advantage of him…and a pigeon with a broken wing who falls into Lizzie’s life. Thank goodness there’s no love interest in this film, or she wouldn’t get any work done at all!
Lizzie seems chronically depressed. Her baggy clothes are tragic; is there any excuse for her consistent choice of gray sweat socks with Crocs on warm spring days? And Lizzie has thick, dark eyebrows, a classic film signifier of female unattactiveness. A loner among the blissfully engrossed art students on the idyllic OCAC campus, Lizzie’s flat affect especially contrasts with her artist/landlady/friend(?) Jo’s more outgoing, confident personality. Jo is also preparing for a show. Actually, two shows. One with a catalog, even. She and her oversized webs are bigger and brighter than Lizzie and her art.
Which brings me to a topic that never ceases to fascinate me: rivalry between women artists. Jo comes across at first as a kind of a jerk. She’ll get Lizzie’s hot water heater fixed—eventually. She’s the one who finds the wounded bird, but she foists it off onto Lizzie. But Jo’s seemingly selfish oblivion may spring from being happily busy. If Lizzie emoted just a little more, it seems that she could be as successful as Jo. The women aren’t catty, but their difference in artist-caste is an obstacle between them, one Lizzie can only explain by saying, “Jo has it all figured out.” Lizzie just keeps on with the hard work of getting work done. She shows up.
Lizzie’s show is a success, although she doesn’t seem to realize it. She takes no notice of the New York gallerist who expresses interest in her figurines. In a Hollywood film, Lizzie might have a moment where she throws off her glasses, plucks her eyebrows, and lightens her hair. It might be her sleeping with a professor, not Jo. She might get an offer for a show in New York. But this isn’t Hollywood. We don’t know what keeps this young woman going, and any sign of growth or change is so subtle as to be indiscernible. Like the now-healed pigeon, we can only hope that Lizzie will one day leave behind her family drama and learn to fly.