20 Best Movies Of 2023

Showing Up is a film for our times, a contemplative work that assesses the desire to pursue artistic passion in a world that doesn't always allow it. Directed by the great Kelly Reichardt, it moves like a poem come to life, and delivers a piercing, ultimately hopeful treatise about creating art against society's obstacles.

Starring Michelle Williams as a passionate sculptor torn between her work, her day job, family and relationships, balancing her time in a rocky juggling act, Reichardt's drama is both heartfelt and light-footed, grounded in its messy appreciation of an artist's lot by a typically powerful Williams and scene-stealing Hong Chau.

Never manipulative and always eye-opening, Showing Up adds another breathtaking instalment to Reichardt's career, a hopefully humanistic tour de force that makes it clear art is always great so long as its creator believes in it. Whatever Reichardt has to say next, we'll be there listening with eager anticipation.