The day before sitting down to watch Cutie and the Boxer, I was thinking about my approach to
documentary films. I tend to review them from the perspective of my reaction to
the material rather than the way that material is presented. If my primary
focus as a critic is on narrative filmmaking, then what do I hope to get out of
documentaries? So I decided to try to look at them in terms of the stories they
tell and how they’re told instead of focusing solely on the subject matter.
Then I watched this touching and at time melancholy tale of two Japanese
artists who’ve made their lives and careers in New York and I found a great
story presented in a fascinating way.
