Columbus
Directed by: Kogonada
Written by: Kogonada
Starring: Haley Lu Richardson, John Cho, Michell Forbes, Rory Culkin, Parker Posey
Comedy/Drama/Romance - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 16 Aug 2017
Written by: Kogonada
Starring: Haley Lu Richardson, John Cho, Michell Forbes, Rory Culkin, Parker Posey
Comedy/Drama/Romance - 100 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 16 Aug 2017
I endured five mind-numbing months training at a military base in central Indiana before heading off to Afghanistan. I had no idea, just to the south, lies Columbus, Indiana - population 45,000 or so. Columbus is famous in certain circles for its modernist architecture. I have no idea why so many renowned architects designed buildings to create an “Athens on the Prairie,” but architecture is such a strong theme coursing through Kogonada’s Columbus, even an incurious architectural novice like me can appreciate the awe and curiosity of it all.
Columbus follows two somewhat lost souls who orbit around one another for a few days. Each harboring a respective complacency when they meet, their ensuring conversations and challenges bump them both onto different vectors than they arrived on just a few days earlier. Puttering nearby while I watched it, my wife asked during the end credits, “Was that movie just a long conversation? All they did was talk; nothing happened.” There are no firearms or chase scenes, but things certainly happened - characters changed and I saw some of the most striking visual aesthetics I’ve seen in a long time.
Columbus follows two somewhat lost souls who orbit around one another for a few days. Each harboring a respective complacency when they meet, their ensuring conversations and challenges bump them both onto different vectors than they arrived on just a few days earlier. Puttering nearby while I watched it, my wife asked during the end credits, “Was that movie just a long conversation? All they did was talk; nothing happened.” There are no firearms or chase scenes, but things certainly happened - characters changed and I saw some of the most striking visual aesthetics I’ve seen in a long time.
Jin (John Cho, Star Trek Beyond) jets in from Seoul when his professor father collapses while on a tour of Columbus. Jin and his father are not close, but Korean society demands the child attend to ailing parents, but maintaining strict attention to work product while away of course. Asking unanswerable questions like “How long has he got” and “Will he get better” lets us know Jin is clock watching to hop back on the plane as soon as may be culturally acceptable.
Local girl Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) notices out of place Jin and becomes his local confidant and tour guide. Deducing Jin must be an architectural acolyte like herself because of his famous father, Casey lobs modernist trivia at him as she rank orders her favorite buildings. Catching Casey off guard, Jin has no interest in architecture, “If you grow up with it, it means nothing.” Too true. Pushing Casey beyond encyclopedic regurgitation, Jin asks Casey what moves her about a particular building. A quick cut to the building’s glass interior looking out at Casey, we cannot hear a word she is saying. It doesn’t matter; look at her face.
Haley Lu Richardson says it all with her expressions. This is a thrilling choice by first time feature director Kogonada. I first noticed Richardson as the friend in The Edge of Seventeen and then as one of the unfortunates in Shyamalan’s Split. Separating herself from the pack now, Haley Lu Richardson displays serious chops and we are on notice; watch out for her in the near future. John Cho, of Harold & Kumar and Star Trek fame, grabs the opportunity to show his more introspective side, but Jin is not as well written as Casey.
Casey also receives more support from two intriguing supporting characters. Mom (Michelle Forbes, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2) has a complex backstory and Casey eagerly uses her as a crutch to stay close to her small town rather than go off to college like everyone else. Casey’s librarian co-worker (Rory Culkin) is the one I wish Kogonada devoted a bit more time to. Culkin says the film’s longest speech, about marginalia of all things, but I wish he kept going. He peeks around the stacks with laser-focused eyes at one of Casey’s more confusing sorority girlfriends and his brief but overt stare is catching. Less is more of course and I am content no further relationship develops between the bookworms, but Kogonada may have missed a teed-up opportunity here.
Now that I know what Columbus, Indiana is hiding nestled in the middle of nowhere, I still don’t want to go there and see it for myself. First of all, Haley Lu Richardson won’t be there to explain it to me. Second, can it look any better in person than through Kogonada’s lens? Columbus will turn off as many viewers as latch onto it, but most carefully-paced cinema does. It would be trite to say only architecture fans will enjoy Columbus; they probably won’t. I say it’s for the walk and talk aficionados; akin to Linklater’s Before trilogy or Southside With You…minus the romance.
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