Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Showing Up Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 3, 2023

Portland's an easy place to coast.

The genesis of the above quote will be shared in a minute or two, but in the meantime, regular readers of this site may recall the Best of 2022 lists we reviewers compiled toward the end of last year (our 2023 lists are imminent) and how yours truly broke the rules (what else is new?) by giving A24 rather than a single film my top designation. I in fact ended my "award" to the studio by stating:

I'll adapt the well known phrase typically applied to my hometown of Portland, and say I hope they "keep A24 weird".

Well, A24 has returned the favor, more or less, anyway, by releasing this appealing if intentionally low key dramedy set in the Rose City (and featuring some of my actual friends in various bit parts, so I'm probably not the most objective analyst). That quote above actually stems from one of the first interchanges I had when I moved to Portland directly out of college, and was rental hunting with my girlfriend at the time and pulled up to a literal shack in NE Portland, since it was one of very few places we could actually afford. As we parked, we saw the fascinating sight of a guy with a chair and whip in an adjoining field going through what looked like elaborate dance moves. This guy came running up to my VW Bus, since he was a fan of such vehicles, and engaged in a conversation, where it turned out (and this is just one of several "keep Portland weird" anecdotes I can relate from personal experience) he was in fact a lion handler for the circus and was practicing his moves. But he also imparted that "wisdom" above, which may be germane to understanding some of the plot mechanics of Showing Up.

Lizzy (Michelle Williams) is a sculptor who is preparing for a show, but who is bedeviled by a lack of hot water in her apartment, something her landlord (and fellow artist) Jo (Hong Chau) is too busy to attend to, since Jo is also preparing for two shows. Lizzy works with her mother Jean (Maryann Plunkett) at the Oregon School of Art and Craft (see my final comments below for a bit of an update on this institution). Jean and Lizzy's father Bill (Judd Hirsch) are separated, though Lizzy is of course hoping that her entire family, which includes her emotionally troubled brother Sean (John Magaro) can make it to her event.

Lizzy's relationship with her cat Ricky may recall another flighty woman with a feline, namely one Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but in this case the one eating is Ricky, and unfortunately he gets his paws on a hapless bird that flies into Lizzy's apartment. That then sets up a rather odd plot strand where Lizzy, after initially more or less throwing the bird away, ends up nursing it back to health, in what seems like a rather startling analog to a metaphor utilized in Empire of Light (it's even an injured pigeon in both cases).

Various vignettes are explored, none of which arguably end up amounting to "much" in terms of really energizing the narrative, but that seems to be part of co-writer and director Kelly Reichardt's aim, in that in a very real way this film is full of characters "coasting". That includes not just the central cast, but sidebars like a couple of aging hippies (there are lots of those in Portland) who have somehow convinced Bill to let them stay in his house gratis, though they ostensibly live in both Canada and Mexico at various times of the year. These characters and others like Sean give a somewhat melancholic undertone to this effort which nonetheless still offers moments of wry humor. The cast is uniformly excellent in what is often a minimalist enterprise without many if any histrionics.

Showing Up Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Showing Up is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Arri Alexas were utilized for the shoot, and the IMDb lists a source capture resolution of 3.4K, so I'm frankly uncertain whether this had a 2K or 4K DI (anyone with authoritative verifiable information is encouraged to private message me, and I can update things as necessary). This is an appealing looking transfer, but as the screenshots may disclose, it has been pretty aggressively tweaked in post to offer what I'd term more of a 16mm look. The digital grain can be pretty overpowering at times, giving a gritty, dirty look against brighter backgrounds in particular. This same approach may also tend to mask detail levels in a number of very dimly lit scenes, including (thankfully) where Ricky attacks the pigeon. All of that said, given the kind of "lo fi" ambience that Reichardt is obviously aiming for, detail levels in more fulsomely lit sequences and especially in several outdoor scenes, are generally excellent. The palette is somewhat tamped down for most of the film, and often has a somewhat peach like undertone which is probably even more noticeable in A24's 4K UHD release of the film.

Showing Up Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps surprisingly given its modest sound design, Showing Up has a Dolby Atmos track. Immersion is consistent but often very subtle, confined to passing ambient environmental effects or just as often passing moments in interior spaces where a number of people have congregated and directionality comes into play. Ethan Rose's minimalist score, which features some kind of "music box" elements, also is well positioned in the side and rear channels. This is far from a "showy" Atmos track, but it provides solid if kind of "quiet" immersive aspects throughout. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Showing Up Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Filmmaker Commentary features Kelly Reichardt, director of photography Christopher Blauvelt and artist Michelle Segre


• Short Films offers two art-centric pieces:

  Bronx, New York, November 2019 (HD; 8:44)

  
  

  Cal State, Long Beach, CA, January 2020 (HD; 9:50)

Additionally, the Digipack holds five art cards featuring some of Cynthia Lahti's watercolors which are seen in the film. Packaging features a slipbox.

Showing Up Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For those who either have already seen or plan to see Showing Up, I have a minor "real life spoiler" to share, in that the Oregon College of Art and Craft actually closed a few years ago, and its campus was sold to a neighboring (and rather tony) private school. In another "keep Portland weird" anecdote for your delectation, earlier this very year I hired a handyman to work on a 100 year old bungalow I purchased in 2021 to handle a bunch of items which included some floor repair, where this guy mixed wood putty and then painted it to match the existing floors, which is when he told my wife and me that he actually had an MFA from Oregon College of Art and Craft, and this was what he ended up doing. I will say his color matching was superb, which may indicate that the education the College provided was helpful (this is all said with tongue in cheek, lest that not be clear). Portland may actually not be such an easy place to coast anymore, but this appealing if deliberately low key film finds a number of characters at least adrift. Technical merits are solid and while Showing Up will probably appeal most to those with "Art House" sensibilties, this disc comes Recommended.