4/5 stars
Documentary explores fascinating 40-year relationship of artist pair
Japanese artist Ushio Shinohara announces at the beginning of the intimate documentary “Cutie and the Boxer” that he has turned 80. His wife, Noriko, also an artist, is more than 20 years younger than him. The two of them live in a small, cluttered apartment in New York with separate studio spaces. Ushio is avant-garde painter who is most famous for his boxing painting.
In the opening credits of the film, Ushio demonstrates his process. The shirtless painter puts on goggles and large boxing gloves with foam material on the ends, dips his hands into trays of paint and violently punches a blank white canvas repeatedly from right to left. Ushio also makes outrageous sculptures of motorcycles and animals out of cardboard.
Noriko does graphic novel-style drawings and paintings with naked characters named Cutie and Bullie, which are based on Noriko and Ushio. While the drawings are not meant to be a 100-percent accurate representation of their lives, they are very autobiographical, and the life of the characters aligns closely with that of the married couple. Her drawings are animated throughout the documentary to tell how the two of them met, fell in love, got married and had a child. Ushio was an alcoholic, and Noriko feels like she had to stop making art in order to raise their son, Alex.
The artists have been married for more than 40 years, but it has clearly not been a smooth relationship, especially for Noriko. Throughout his life and even during the documentary, Ushio has struggled to sell his art and make a living. He goes to Japan during the film to try and sell some of his pieces. He packs them into a large suitcase and walks to the subway station. The film tellingly never follows him outside the country because the film is really told through Noriko.
Zachary Heinzerling, in his directorial debut, has captured the everyday life of a pair of artists. They are not just shown painting or at museums but waking up, eating and even showering.
One really gets the sense that the Shinoharas were not behaving differently because the cameras were following them. They seem indifferent and unbothered by the filming. The beauty and joy of watching “Cutie and the Boxer” is seeing how art shapes an artist’s life and how opposite people attract and love each other.
In the film, Ushio and Noriko have an art exhibit together, and he decides to call it “ROAR!” after seeing the exclamation in the comic book. In part of the exhibit, there is the phrase “Love is a ROAR!” Ushio says he does not like it and asks who came up with it. His wife says she did because it is true. She says, “Love is a ROAR!” Ushio and Noriko are frequently filmed on different sides of their apartment, facing away from each other and going about their own business. They argue, and she often derides him for not doing things her way. The two appear to be fighting and at odds with each other, but neither could live without the other. Noriko says if she had to do it all over again, raising their son singlehandedly and halting her art career, she would. Ushio could have died a forgotten drunk if Noriko had not stayed with him. What has kept them together for more than 40 years is their love for each other and their art. Like Ushio’s art, their love might be messy and at times baffling, but it is beautiful and vital to him.