CUTIE AND THE BOXER – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

“Cutie” is a character from artist Noriko Shinohara’s series of comic book-style drawings tracing the story of a woman in the thrall of her domineering drunk of a husband. “The Boxer” is Noriko’s own husband, Ushio, who — among his many other fascinating methods of creating art — punches paint-filled boxing gloves into giant canvases to produce abstract works of energetic power; Ushio also bears a striking resemblance to Cutie’s spouse. This utterly captivating documentary about the New York City couple, the feature debut of filmmaker Zachary Heinzerling, misleads you at first into thinking it’s going to be a portrait of 80-year-old Ushio, who is renowned for his “action paintings” and his enormous cardboard sculptures and yet is also almost the definition of a starving artist: he can’t find buyers for his famous work. Instead, we are treated to a sly, subversive version of an all-too-familiar story of a woman with brains and talent who has gotten steamrollered by a man who rendered himself helpless the moment there was someone else around to take care of him. Read more>>