Indie Watch
Cutie and the Boxer
By Dan Krovich
January 2, 2014
The landscape for independent films has changed rapidly. On one hand, the opportunity to build a theatrical release has become increasingly difficult, but on the other hand, digital release has given indies a chance to play to a broad national audience at once. Each week, new indie releases will be profiled and because they might not be playing at a theater near you, one highly recommended film available now a click or two away via VOD (whether a new or not quite new release) will be presented for viewing without leaving your computer.
VOD Pick of the Week
Cutie and the Boxer
Cutie and the Boxer tells the tale of 80-year-old artist Ushio Shinohara and his wife of 40 years, Noriko Shinohara. After finding success in the Japanese avant-garde art scene, Ushio moved to New York City to find his place in the art scene there. He became known for his “boxing painting” technique in which he would dip boxing gloves in paint and then punch the canvas to create his art, but also worked in other formats such as cardboard sculpture.
In 1973, Noriko came to New York as a 19-year-old art student and met Ushio, who was 22 years her senior. They were soon married and Noriko’s artistic ambitions were generally squashed as she became Ushio’s de facto assistant. Ushio’s notoriety did not always lead to financial reward and once Noriko’s disapproving parents stopped sending money, it made life even more of a challenge.
We meet the couple on Ushio’s 80th birthday and the film largely consists of the couple in their daily life as they prepare for an upcoming show. They are barely scraping by, and in fact they are behind on the rent and other bills. Ushio is about to have an opening and it is vital that he sell a work just to catch up on the rent.
The dynamics of the marriage are a bit of a puzzle, particularly by modern standards. Ushio seemingly treats Noriko as an assistant more than a wife, matter-of-factly observing that it is the job of the “average” one in the relationship to support the genius. We get glimpses of their past life together through some film footage from a documentary done on Ushio in the 1970s. While Ushio may not have been outright abusive, we see that he was at the very least an alcoholic who was dismissive of the wife who sacrificed for him and raised their child. We also see their marriage depicted through the comic style art of Noriko, who seems to be finally re-finding her artistic voice through recounting her experiences through her series of works featuring the autobiographical characters of “Cutie and Bullie.”
While the film begins with its focus on Ushio, it is Noriko who becomes the star of the documentary as she finally begins to assert herself after four decades of resigning herself to the shadows. When a gallery owner comes to see some of Ushio’s work for an upcoming show, Ushio seems a bit surprised when Noriko takes out some of her work to show that there are two artists in the family and proposes a joint show.
It’s easy to watch Cutie and the Boxer and simply wonder why Noriko would stay with her husband for all those years. The film does not portray a traditional notion of love and marriage that we would normally expect to see, and it also does not go out of its way to explain why this relationship has lasted. It simply presents the couple as they are, allowing the viewer to draw his or her own conclusions about the sacrifices we are willing to make for love and art.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Netflix
New releases for January 3rd
The Best Offer: Geoffrey Rush plays Virgil Oldman, an art appraiser and auctioneer who becomes intrigued by his new client, an agoraphobic young woman who wants him to appraise and auction off the artwork she has inherited from her deceased parents. Due to her condition, they can not meet face-to-face and they only talk on the telephone and from the opposite sides of a closed door in her home. Virgil, who has his own quirks (he is a germaphobe for one), becomes further and further drawn into the world of this obsessive young woman.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Beyond Outrage: Director Takeshi Kitano returns with a follow up to his violent crime yakuza drama, Outrage. In the aftermath of that film two crime families, the Sanno and the Hanabishi, have become the two most powerful organizations in the underground crime scene. There is tension between the new generation and old guard of the Sanno, and organized crime detective Kataoka sees that rift as a chance to start a war between the two families with the hopes that they’ll destroy each other.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu
Open Grave: The basic premise is one that has been used before effectively. Sharlto Copley plays Jonah, a man who awakens in a pit of dead bodies with no recollection of how he got there. Nearby he finds an abandoned mansion with a group of people who also have no memory of what has happened to them. As they search the mansion they begin to find clues and suspicions arise that Jonah may not be the victim he appears.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu
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