Animals abound in the films of Kelly Reichardt. Some are loyal companions, such as the titular canine of Wendy and Lucy. Others are kept in servitude by their human owners, like the oxen that pull a wagon train in Meek’s Cutoff. Usually they occupy a more ambiguous place, like the horses cared for by a ranch hand in Certain Women: They are both a commodity she manages and her only source of companionship in the barren isolation of rural Montana.
In her latest film, Showing Up, Reichardt introduces two new members to this unruly menagerie: a house cat and a pigeon. The cat belongs to Lizzy (Michelle Williams), a sculptor who has a day job as an administrative assistant at a small college. In the middle of the night, it mauls a pigeon that has somehow gotten into the bathroom, after which Lizzy unceremoniously dumps the injured bird out of the window. The next morning, her landlord, a more successful artist named Jo (Hong Chau), discovers the pigeon and insists on nursing it back to health.
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