‘Cutie and the Boxer’ depicts unique Brooklyn love story
“Cutie and the Boxer”, a film by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Zachary Heinzerling, is an intimate, observational documentary chronicling the unique love story between Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, married Japanese artists living in New York. The couple has lived and worked in the same DUMBO loft which the film displays so centrally for close to 27 years, witnessing the neighborhood change dramatically in their time there. Bound by years of quiet resentment, disappointments and missed professional opportunities, they are locked in a hard, dependent love.
The film begins in Brooklyn, where the couple struggles to manage their creeping poverty. Examining each artist’s complicated history, the film reveals the roots of their relationship. Ushio Shinohara achieved notoriety in postwar Japan for his avant-garde “boxing” paintings, and in 1969 set out for New York City in search of international recognition. Three years later, at age 19, Noriko left Japan to study art in New York and was instantly captivated by the middle-aged Ushio. She abandoned her education and her wealthy family’s support to become the wife of an unruly, alcoholic husband and, a year later, mother of their only son, Alex.
Their 40-year marriage has left Ushio and Noriko in distinct spaces. At 80, Ushio continues to obsessively pursue the painting and sculpture he crafted half a century ago. Coming off a recent, poorly received show in which he sold no work, he’s become increasingly desperate to establish his legacy in the final years of his life.