Cutie and the Boxer

The second Best Documentary Feature I'm taking a look at is Cutie and the Boxer, directed by Zach Heinzerling, which is a touching story of art and romance.

The film concerns the married couple Ushio and Noriko Shinohara. Ushio is something of a celebrity, an abstract expressionist who specializes in making sculptures of motorcycles or his "boxing" paintings. He makes those by attaching paint-filled sponges to boxing gloves and punching the canvas.

Noriko, who is much younger that Ushio, put her art career on hold to care for Ushio and their son. As Ushio puts it, he is the genius, and she is average, therefore he is the important one. But she is attempting to revive her career, making an autobiographical series of drawings about "Cutie" and her older husband, "Bullie."

Though Ushio is famous, he is not rich. He has to go to Japan to sell some sculptures, which he stashes in his suitcase. He comes back with an envelope of hundreds, as if he had just sold a kilo of cocaine. Noriko scolds him for selling them too cheaply.

The relationship dynamic between these two is the spine of the film. Though 21 years older, Ushio is basically a man-child, a former alcoholic (he had to quit when he became allergic), while Noriko is both a wife and mother figure. Many women would wonder how she lasted this long with such an incorrigible man, and she describes it as a constant struggle, but her love for him is apparent. When she tells him he should hire an assistant, because she does it for free, he thinks about this a moment, and then grabs her leg. "But I need you," he says.

A sideline to this film is a look at modern art. I am a big champion of it--I think Jackson Pollock is a great artist--but I'm not so sure about Shinohara. His boxing paintings take only a couple of minutes--he completes one, start to finish, during the opening credits to the film, and there appears to be little thought put into them. At one point, he makes a painting, steps back, and says to Noriko, "I don't know if it's good or bad, finished or unfinished." She says, "I don't think it's good."

While the bickering between the two is charming, this is ultimately a slight film, especially compared to The Act of Killing--you can't even compare the two. But it's a nice film. Just not Oscar worthy.