Cutie and the Boxer

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Robert S @rodash 07/15/2020 A touching story about the power of art and of love. See more 06/29/2020 Storytelling filmmaker Zachary Heinzerling wanted to spend more time with the couple that struck him in awe over their relationship and shared passion, then share the casual interaction with others in hoping to replicate the meet via screen. A successful attempt of being faithful to the approach in uttermost respect to showcasing their artwork and manageably captured their inspirational energy and challenges that strengthens their passions. A real human story in its own uniqueness being shared, but nothing more than furthering an unexpected, casual, awestruck meeting that is not exactly significant impactful if in another field. (B) See more 07/27/2016 What a great movie and an interesting look into the lives of two artists! See more 09/16/2015 Whenever I hear that a couple has been married for a long time, say 40 or 50 or even 60 years, my mind tries to consider how such a thing is possible. What keeps people together? How do they manage a marriage that takes up 80% of their lives? How do you settle with another person indefinitely? How do you deal, year after year, with someone who drives you crazy? "Cutie and the Boxer" is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary that chooses one married couple as a means of answering those very questions. Noriko and Ushio Shinohara are a Japanese couple who have been married for 40 years. They aren't quite equals. He's an abstract artist who hasn't exactly made himself a household name. Noriko seems to function, more or less, as a dutiful housewife. She cooks, she cleans and she complains about his expensive trips to show off art that don't yield much money. He throws off her complains with "Hey, it's something." Ushio's art - which he creates by punching a canvas with paint-dipped boxing gloves - is popular but, he admits, nothing that anyone really wants to buy (watching him create the piece is more fun than the actual result). He also sculpts large grotesque and colorful sculptures of motorcycles that look cool in a museum but aren't anything that anyone wants in their home. Noriko exists, more or less, off in the corner of Ushio's life. She tolerates his attempts to supplement a living making art that no one will pay money for. Oh, he makes a little, but we can see that his meager income has forced them into a cramped living space in Brooklyn, with spaces filled by his art and other assorted clutter. She complains about the cost, then later he comes home and slaps money on the table with a "so there" satisfaction. The most wonderful thing about "Cutie and the Boxer" is the way in which it simply leaves us alone to observe Noriko and Ushio. This is a movie completely devoid of talking heads. We learn about them through their experience with each other and some flashback information that shows us how they met that gives us a template of how they got where they are. They met in New York City, in 1969. Noriko was a 19 year old art student; Ushio was 40 and making avant-garde art. It was a good plan but then real life burst in the door. They got married and circumstances forced her to be housewife and supporter of a struggling artist who would spend the next 40 years in a state of professional stalemate. Presently, we see Noriko struggling to recapture her dream, drawing a series of cartoons called "Cutie and Bullie" which depict her life with Noriko through cherubic characters that are half-autobiographical and half-pornographic. Their bond is touching, but we wonder what keeps them going. As the movie opens, they have cake together Ushio woofs it down and gets frosting on his face. Noriko tells him to wipe it off but he ignores her. "I don't listen to you," he tells her. "That is how I stay young." It is that kind of connective resistance that keeps them together. They are contentious, combative, competitive, yet somehow strangely affectionate. There are moments that the camera captures that no screenwriter could invent. Take a moment late in the film when Ushio finishes one of his paintings. He asks Noriko what she thinks. "It's not good", she says. Then the camera lingers on Ushio's face, he's hurt and a little upset, but he never tells his wife. The scene shifts to sometime later and we can still see the pain on his face. Their competitive nature exists all through their marriage. That's especially true at they draw to an upcoming art exhibition in a New York gallery in which they will both be showing off their work. "Art is a demon that drags you along," Ushio says. "It's something you can't stop even if you should." What he doesn't admit is that their respective artistic visions are the glue that binds their marriage together. See more 08/05/2015 It's funny that the little girl "artist" is The Great Beauty basically did what Ushio has done artistically for 50 years; the problem is one's a parody of modern art, and the other is not. The subjects just didn't interest me enough to justify this doc. Sure their marriage is "kind" of interesting, but not enough for a whole doc. See more 06/13/2015 A weirdly engaging look at a husband and wife who are both artists, feeding off each other for inspiration and support. The film builds and builds as we get to know these two quirky people and find out why they stay together even when they can't seem to get along most of the time. Their relationship is not unlike so many long term married couples. They find a way to make it "work". The filmmaking is really strong, bringing emotion to the story through lingering up close looks at both Cutie and The Boxer. It's pretty fun watching this old man punch away at his canvas. You realize it's not the art itself but the process that is the art. The filming of Ushio punching the canvas is the art. And without that look into the making of the art, I'm not sure the art itself would have much meaning. I'll forever have the image of this old man in goggles punching the canvas in my mind. See more Read all reviews

Cutie and the Boxer

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