The city of Columbus, Indiana, in addition to being the home town of current vice president Mike Pence, is also home to an unusually large concentration of modernist architecture, to the point that its a bit of a tourist mecca to a niche crowd of architecture nerds. The plot of the new film Columbus, like the town in which it is set, revolves around architecture, and there is something architectural about the way it is filmed by video artist Kogonada. The framing and composition of the shots is modernist, removed, maybe slightly off center, but the emotional core of the film is quite strong, with subtlety effecting performances throughout, particularly by the young Haley Lu Richardson, who is making a strong early impression with her work here and in The Edge of Seventeen, one of last years better films.
Richardson plays Casey, a smart young woman just a year out of high school who is working at the local library and helping her single mother Maria (Michelle Forbes) for whom she seems nervously concerned. Casey has a love of the architectural treasures in her community, and it is this interest that first breakers the ice with Jin (John Cho) the son of a prominent architectural scholar, who has traveled to the small town from his native Korea after his father feel into coma while in Columbus conducting research. This unlikely couple, both lonely and dealing with complicated parental relationships, comes into each others lives at pivotal moments of self discovery, and help one another navigate their complicated feelings towards their parents.
The small supporting cast, chiefly Rory Culkin and Parker Posey do fine work here as well, but the movie belongs Cho and Richardson, both doing the best work they have ever done. A beautiful, profound little film that caught me by surprise and may be the best new movie I've seen all year. I just loved this. ****
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