Synopsis
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.
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Cast
- John ChoJin
- Haley Lu RichardsonCasey
- Michelle ForbesMaria
- Rory CulkinGabriel
- Parker PoseyEleanor
- Erin AllegrettiEmma
- Shani Salyers StilesVanessa
- Reen VogelCleaner
- Rosalyn R. RossChristine
- Lindsey ShopeSarah
- 100
The Playlist
A gentle but sharply defined story, brimming with grace, compassion and performances of perfect naturalism, it is unashamedly intellectual yet deeply human. - 100
Slant Magazine
The seeming miracle of Columbus is its mixture of formal precision with a philosophical grasp of human mystery. - 100
Variety
The hypnotically paced drama carried by the serendipitous odd-couple pairing of John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson is lovely and tender, marking Kogonada as an auteur to watch. - 100
Screen Daily
Into what might have been an alienating, hard-edged setting, human warmth comes from some relishably muted performances. - 100
The New Yorker
Richardson in particular vaults to the forefront of her generation’s actors with this performance, which virtually sings with emotional and intellectual acuity.... Few performances—and few films—glow as brightly with the gemlike fire of precocious genius. - 100
Los Angeles Times
What’s remarkable about this wondrously assured debut is that technique never overwhelms feeling, in part because Kogonada makes the two seem inextricably, harmoniously linked. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
A soft-spoken and perceptive film set in the Modernist small-town marvel that is Columbus, Indiana, this is a specialized art house treat that announces the arrival of a new director who combines small-scale, Ozu-like humanism with an impressive command of the formalist possibilities of film. - 88
Rolling Stone
Delicate business is being transacted in Columbus, a whisper-soft debut from Kogonada that nonetheless results in something unique and unforgettable. It's pure cinema.