Columbus (2017)

[baumer]

Discuss

[somebody85]

This is another I heard a lot of hype about before watching but was pretty underwhelmed by it. It does bear similarities to Lady Bird but this film way overdoes it on the still shots of the city. By the end it stops being subtle and being like "Alright, enough, I get it. I've already seen this building or this alley way a lot and seeing it again is not adding to the film." It really starts to feel pretentious (and I hate to use that word).

It also takes a long time to get started and I never really felt that much chemistry from Jin and Kacey to begin with. In a lot of scenes she just shows up in front of him when it seemed like it would have been the other way around. A lot of the characters felt authentic and I got what they were going for....just not sure they landed it. 

I felt like the whole film would have worked better without Jins character to begin with because I found Kacey a lot more interesting. I guess her following him and gaining some sort of attachment worked but it was funny when Jin said "This isn't like the movies Cassandra/Kacey" and then proceeds to act just like a character out of a movie when he randomly goes to visit his dad right after that conversation.

The shot back at his stepmoms totally viewed through the bedroom panel was a weird choice too. Stuff like that is again "Alright, you're trying too hard"...as were all the shots of her houses hallways compared to his. The film kind of beats the viewer over the head with what it thinks are profound messages.
 

Kaceys relationship with her mom was great and felt real but she kind of treated her other friend really badly and I don't understand why. She came off condescending a lot and unable to handle criticism.

It's one of those movies where there's a lot of stuff I liked and a lot of stuff I didn't like. I am glad that Kacey and Jin never went on to have an actual relationship but guessed that ending is where things where headed. Left me with some stuff to digest regarding it's messages about architecture but that's about it.
 

I dunno. Probably a B-/C+. Leaning more towards a C+ (not a huge difference in these scores to me - probably 3 stars). Wanted to like it a lot more than I did. 

Edited January 20, 2018 by somebody85