And oh, Kelly Reichardt, how do I love thee? SO DAMN MUCH.  This new film -- starring Michelle Williiams, Hong Chau, John Magaro (whom you may remember from First Cow), and others, including Judd Hirsch -- is everything you might hope from a Reichardt film in its humanity and patience and nuance but also not quite like anything she's done before.

It's been designated in some quarters (including IMDb) as a "comedy," but that's not quite right, even though the film is laced with dry humor in a way I've not seen Reichardt do before. It's not really a laugh out loud film though it's also very far from the relentless parching intensity of a Meek's Cutoff  or from the brutally sad desperation of Wendy and Lucy. This story is much gentler than those while also offering the same elliptical but piercing commentary on the folly and beauty of the human world. Here, the setting is among artists and in and around a rather bohemian art school in the Pacific Northwest, and Michelle Williams's character is a sculptor trying to get her work together in time for an upcoming show and constantly running into obstacles, both aesthetic and personal. 

Williams and the other artists in the story are those who take their art very seriously, but they are also those who in their daily lives may be alternately profound or silly or inconsistent or selfish or compassionate, depending on the day or the hour. I couldn't quite tell if Reichardt was gently mocking art school and art students or celebrating them, but I think it's maybe a little bit of both, and as such, perhaps a wry reflection on her own work as a filmmaker.  For in terms of the film's perspective, it doesn't indicate whether the characters' art is any good at all, and that's really not the point -- art is, the film seems to say, simply, a very human effort towards something profound and something personal. The meanings and relative profundity are left up to us. It’s a film I haven’t been able to shake since seeing it, and like all Reichardt films have done for me, burrowing into my heart and soul and leaving a mark. It’s wonderful.