Film

Columbus

Name: Columbus
Genre: Drama
Released: 2017
Cast: John Cho, Haley Lu Richardson, Michelle Forbes, Rory Culkin, Parker Posey

Columbus is less plot than mood: a son stranded in an Indiana town famous for its modernist buildings drifts into friendship with a young local while his estranged father lies comatose nearby. Kogonada frames every scene like a photograph, letting glass, concrete and silence carry what the characters won't say. Slow, precise, deeply felt - for patient viewers who like their drama quiet.

TMDb rating

7.1

If you liked this

Paterson2016

Jim Jarmusch follows a bus-driving poet through a week of small-town routine, finding quiet wonder in the ordinary the same way Kogonada finds it in glass and concrete. Patient, deadpan, deeply kind to its characters.

But Nothing resembling a plot happens; if you need forward momentum or stakes, this will feel like watching paint dry beautifully.

Lost in Translation2003

Two strangers marooned in an unfamiliar place drift into a friendship hovering between romance and rescue - the same delicate, unresolved ache Columbus is built on, just swap Ohio for Tokyo.

But The age gap between the leads reads differently now than it did in 2003, and some viewers find the tone twee.

Before Sunrise1995

Two people talk their way across a city in real time, falling into each other through conversation alone - the blueprint for every walk-and-talk indie romance since, Columbus included.

But It's essentially ninety minutes of dialogue between two attractive twentysomethings; if that premise doesn't charm you immediately, it won't grow on you.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

My Architect: A Son's Journey2003no page yet

Columbus's central premise - a son processing an architect father through the buildings he left behind - is drawn almost exactly from this true story, minus the fiction.

Nathaniel Kahn's documentary is a son investigating his estranged, brilliant architect father's legacy after his death - literally Jin's fictional journey, except real, and quietly devastating.

But It's a documentary with talking heads and archival footage, not a mood piece; the tone is investigative rather than contemplative.

Certain Women2016

Kelly Reichardt's triptych of Montana women moving through quiet, unresolved lives shares Columbus's trust in silence, landscape and restraint over exposition.

But It's even slower and more elliptical than Columbus, with three barely connected stories instead of one - patience required.

A Ghost Story2017

David Lowery's static, painterly shots of a house outliving its inhabitants turn architecture into a meditation on time and grief, much like Columbus turns buildings into feelings.

But A man in a bedsheet ghost costume for most of the runtime; the whimsy of that image undercuts the film for some.

Manchester by the Sea2016

Casey Affleck plays a man frozen by grief and obligation, forced back into a place he'd rather forget - the same stasis and quiet family reckoning Jin carries through Columbus.

But It's considerably heavier and more devastating; there's little of Columbus's gentleness to cushion the sadness.

Lady Bird2017

Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age story shares Casey's restlessness - a smart young woman caught between loyalty to a struggling parent and the pull toward a bigger life elsewhere.

But It's warmer and funnier than Columbus, with none of its architectural stillness - a different rhythm entirely.

The Farewell2019

A family crisis pulls someone back into an unfamiliar place and forces quiet reflection on duty, distance and impending loss, much as Jin's father's illness does in Columbus.

But The cultural specifics and comic warmth give it a very different flavour - less hushed, more openly emotional.

First Reformed2018

Paul Schrader's austere drama uses architecture and interior space as moral weight, the same way Columbus uses buildings to carry unspoken feeling - just far darker.

But It builds toward something much bleaker and more radical; anyone expecting Columbus's gentleness will be blindsided.

PlayTime1967

Both films treat modernist architecture as a character in its own right; Tati finds comedy in the same alienation Columbus finds tenderness in.

Jacques Tati's nearly wordless comedy watches modernist Paris swallow ordinary people whole, turning glass towers and identical offices into a vast, gently absurd joke about what architecture does to us.

But It's slapstick and almost entirely visual, with barely any dialogue - a big tonal swing from Columbus's hushed conversations.

Arrival2016

Both films use physical structure - buildings, spacecraft - as a way of thinking about grief, memory and communication between people who struggle to say things directly.

A linguist tries to decode an alien language shaped like architecture itself, while grief for a lost parent quietly reshapes how she understands time - contemplative sci-fi with the same patient, structural eye.

But It's a science-fiction film with an alien-invasion premise; that genre wrapper might feel like a strange fit for Columbus fans.