Capsule Reviews: 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret' & 'Showing Up'

by Philip Price

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret 

Photo: Lionsgate Films

I knew I was in trouble when, in the opening sequence of the film, our titular Margaret (a wonderful Abby Ryder Fortson) is leaving camp at the end of the summer before her sixth-grade year, and all I could think as the images and colors director Kelly Fremon Craig composed played out across the screen was how sad it was that this would be the only summer Margaret would have as an 11-year-old. The impending fading of innocence traversing into experience. How finite youth truly is and how apt the old cliches are and that it's too bad we don't give them enough merit or at least enough thought to try and understand them when we're in that phase of life. Mind you, this is all without knowing all the changes - in body, mind and soul - that would be taking place in Margaret's life over the next year as she moved from the city to the suburbs, is forced to meet new people and make new friends, as well as experiencing all the wonderful shifts puberty entails. Needless to say, the next hour and 40 minutes were both extremely reassuring and yes, extremely affecting, in all the warmest and most charming of ways.

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” is streaming on Starz or can be rented on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

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Showing Up

Photo: A24

I swear to all things there is a scene early on where Michelle Williams is just doing a straight-up Napoleon Dynamite impression. That moment aside, I'm beginning to think director Kelly Reichardt joints just aren't my jam. I vaguely remember finding “Certain Women” compelling in certain aspects, but between “First Cow” and “Showing Up” you may as well put me on the dunce train because ... I don't get it. I'd like to, don't get me wrong, but Williams' Lizzy is such a wet blanket while the community around her has this whole postmodern, weird for the sake of being weird vibe going for them to the point none of it feels honest or earnest. I guess as much should be expected given creative types tend to always position life as more a series of performance opportunities than of experiences, but the feigned nature of this mentality transcends whatever it is Reichardt is trying to say or examine here.

“Showing Up” is streaming on Paramount+ or can be rented on Amazon Prime Video.