On 'Showing Up'

The Portland, Oregon art school featured in Showing Up, Kelly Reichardt’s eighth feature film, may divide audiences into those who view a temple of rug-weaving, earthwork, and “thinking in movement” as either an Edenic wonderland or a crochet-laden circle of hell. Reichardt’s introduction of the campus (shot at the recently closed Oregon College of Art and Craft) offers a first litmus test in the form of a young woman showing off what appears to be her thesis project: a full-body knit jumpsuit in multicolored yarn. “A whole year of my life!” she exclaims to her mentor (André Benjamin), not quite believing it herself. Shades of Portlandia infuse the world of Showing Up, which is not just Reichardt’s funniest film—a low bar—but also game in a way that rescues its players from caricature, risking silliness to propose the serious imperatives of any dedicated pursuit, even one that may or may not involve putting a bird on something and calling it art.