Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
When a renowned architecture scholar falls suddenly ill during a speaking tour, his son Jin finds himself stranded in Columbus, Indiana - a small Midwestern city celebrated for its many significant modernist buildings. Jin strikes up a friendship with Casey, a young architecture enthusiast who works at the local library.
Columbus is a quietly exceptional debut from Kogonada, distinguished above all by its cinematography — static, architecturally composed frames that treat the modernist buildings of Columbus, Indiana as emotional mirrors. The performances, particularly Haley Lu Richardson and John Cho, are restrained and deeply felt, conveying longing and stasis with remarkable naturalism. The film's novelty lies in its singular voice: a meditative, essayistic approach to character drama that feels genuinely one-of-a-kind in American indie cinema, blending architectural criticism with intimate emotional excavation. The plot is deliberately undramatic — two people talking, circling their unresolved feelings about parents and place — which is both its strength and a mild limitation for those expecting conventional narrative momentum. The ending is quietly satisfying but deliberately open, resolving little while feeling emotionally true, landing closer to above average than exceptional.