Vadim Rizov’s review published on Letterboxd:
Frustration—about being right while treated like she’s always wrong—can make Lizzy petty. “He’s always been creative,” Jo says to brush away any alarm Sean’s behavior might raise. “A lot of people are creative,” Lizzy responds, as dismissive as she is correct. The film operates in a tonal register near Ann Beattie’s best short stories: observations of specific/privileged zones within white-collar/creative class circles, rendered with a mildly satirical judgmentalism justified by its accuracy and judiciousness (a great line: “We’ve got different theories on cultural production, or he just doesn’t like me”). But an operating assumption of the film’s engagement with this space is feeling that it’s essentially worthwhile. “I wonder who I’d been if I never got to go get a fine arts degree,” Jenny Hval sings on this year’s “American Coffee,” seemingly in sincere gratitude; likewise, Showing Up takes the idea of making art, and the people who do so, seriously.