Kel­ly Reichardt and Michelle Williams will reunite on Show­ing Up

Akira Kuro­sawa had Toshi­ro Mifu­ne. Ing­mar Bergman had Liv Ull­mann. Mar­tin Scors­ese still has Robert De Niro (and Leonar­do DiCaprio), from time to time. To the short­list of immor­tal direc­tor-actor col­lab­o­ra­tions, we must add Kel­ly Reichardt and Michelle Williams, a pow­er duo now gear­ing up for their fourth film together.

In a con­ver­sa­tion between Reichardt and fel­low film­mak­er Ken­neth Lon­er­gan on the A24 pod­cast, the news broke that she will re-team with Williams for the upcom­ing Show­ing Up, a ​“vibrant and sharply fun­ny” project that sounds like a depar­ture from the gen­tle sto­icism of First Cow. The pod­cast also men­tions that they plan to com­mence shoot­ing this sum­mer, hope­ful­ly with more wide­spread vac­ci­na­tions sim­pli­fy­ing the pro­duc­tion process.

In the new project, Williams plays an artist ​“on the verge of a career-chang­ing exhi­bi­tion” which rearranges her per­son­al life as well. Her many inter­ac­tions with friends, fam­i­ly, and col­leagues com­pli­cate her life even as their stress­es pro­vide her with inspi­ra­tion she can chan­nel back in to her work. As with most of Reichardt’s work, expect the film to be dri­ven as much by char­ac­ter and mood than plot.

Show­ing Up will fol­low Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cut­off, and Cer­tain Women in the Reichardt-Williams canon, all of which cap­i­tal­ized on their star’s com­bi­na­tion of under­stat­ed har­di­ness and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. In inter­views, Reichardt has said she val­ues Williams for her con­fi­dence, curios­i­ty, and unpre­dictabil­i­ty; Williams prizes the chal­lenges of sub­dued min­i­mal­ism that Reichardt’s direct­ing demands of her.

The brief descrip­tion of the plot sug­gests a larg­er cast, and so the com­ing months will sure­ly bring addi­tion­al announce­ments of that nature. Per­haps Richardt will also tap Lily Glad­stone for anoth­er role, mak­ing this their third film in a row together.