Romancefest 2021: Cutie and the Boxer

Directed by Zachary Heinzerling

Starring Noriko Shinohara and Ushio Shinohara

USA, 2013

Here's a first for Romancefest -- a documentary! At least, I'm pretty sure it's a first. Seems strange, considering a relationship is just as great a subject for a documentary as anything else, but there you have it.

This documentary follows the several decades long relationship between two Japanese artists who moved to America as young adults. He's more established than she is and she's 20 years younger than him. They squeak by, worrying about bills in their Brooklyn apartment/art studio. She feels her artistic career has been sidelined as she spends most of her time taking care of her husband and her son, and begins creating a series of art pieces that add up to what looks like a graphic novel, telling the story of their relationship.

These "cartoons" are brought to life throughout to help tell the story of how the couple met and give us some insight into how she views everything. Meanwhile, we see his attempts to sell old pieces to museums and collectors, mount new showings, and watch as he "boxes" his paintings to life, dipping big gloves in paint and punching the canvas.

Like any portrait of the intimate interactions between a couple people who've known each other forever, CUTIE AND THE BOXER makes us fall in love with these two and appreciate what they have. However, it is very realistic about the difficulties of the relationship and how substance abuse and financial irresponsibility can stress things. There's also deep worries of whether or not one artist or the other has fulfilled their potential in their creative lives.

It's difficult to decide exactly how to feel about this relationship, and I guess that's a testimony to the reality of the documentary. On one hand, you want to excuse everything and say, well, deep down, they both love and need each other. Everyone has problems, and love overcomes.

On the other, you wonder how much of that is colored by just accepting the status quo -- would she flourish without him? Would he be helpless without her? We'll probably never know, and I guess it's not up to me to pass judgment. I'd like to think they're meant for each other. They make a good case for it.