Review of Cutie and the Boxer (2013) by Simon D — 19 Feb 2014

There are two distinct topics/themes the Academy decided to go for this year (2013) when selecting their five nominees for Best Documentary Feature as two are about war, two are about art while the fifth is a brilliant unlikely combination of the two.

Cutie and the Boxer is one of the two about art as it is a late-life portrait of 80-year-old "boxing" painter Ushio Shinohara and his 58-year-old wife Noriko who has been his devoted assistant throughout most of his struggling career.

He was once a rising star in the 1970's New York art scene and he met his wife when she was just a 19-year-old student who'd just arrived in NYC and found herself fascinated with the eccentric artist (he too was smitten .

.. and he enjoyed her money from home). This doc chronicles a short span of time as The Boxer prepares for his latest gallery show and Noriko hopes to gain some notice of her own artwork, a comic depiction of their tumultuous marriage starring herself as "Cutie".

It is an affecting documentary about a multi-faceted love that has matured and grown between two aging adults and between two artists who clash at times but complete one another -- like she does his art -- moments later.

The film honestly captures marital frustration with fleeting bits of loathsome disdain Cutie has regarding her husband's ill-managed weaknesses. In the end, they've dedicated their lives to one another as Cutie has sacrificed much of her prime to support the Boxer who needed her.