"Columbus" and "Lady Macbeth"

Time to roll up the sleeves and get into some serious cinema.

"Columbus" is the feature debut of Kogonada, who up until now has been better known as an editor of video essays dissecting the works of other filmmakers. And his analytical eye is evident in every frame of his film, which is one of the most visually distinctive, aesthetically beautiful American indies I've seen in ages. Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) and Jin (John Cho) are an unlikely pair whose paths cross in the city of Columbus, Indiana, which has a reputation for being something of a Mecca for architects. She has stalled college plans to take care of an ailing mother, and is now reluctant to face the future. He has a father in a coma, and is having trouble deciding a course of action.

The two become friends, of course, and spend most of the film wandering around Columbus and talking - mostly about architecture. It's a slow film, full of conversations but few plot points. This gives the audience time to really get to know the characters, and to take in all the gorgeous scenery and architecture that they explore. And it really is refreshing to find a film that has such a strong visual sense, and one that is so appreciative of the work of other artists. There's a lovely deliberateness and thoughtfulness to the way that the shots are composed, how the featured buildings and sculptures are presented and utilized.

The performances are also a treat. I'd heard "Columbus" described as a mood piece, so I was prepared for its stillness and long stretches of silence, but I found it was also an excellent character study of its central duo. Haley Lu Richardson continues to impress here as Casey, revealing more and more sides to her character with each new scene and conversation. However, I really love that "Columbus" gives John Cho the opportunity to sink his teeth into something substantial. He's been a terribly underutilized actor, and it's good to see him as a lead in a drama. And Jin is a rare Asian-American lead role that actually pings as a genuine, well-rounded Asian-American character too.

Now on to "Lady Macbeth," which is not a Shakespeare adaptation, but instead a reworking of a Russian novel about a spiritually similar character. The film stars Florence Pugh as Katherine, a young woman in Victorian England who has been recently married off to the much older, unpleasant Alexander Lester (Paul HIlton). Forced to live a highly restricted life in the remote countryside, under the thumb of her husband and father-in-law Boris (Christopher Fairbank), Katherine quietly endures. However, Alexander unexpectedly goes away on business and a new groomsman, Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis) joins the household, creating new outlets for Katherine's frustrations and dissatisfaction.

This is the feature debut of William Oldroyd, who handles the material with a welcome even-handedness. He portrays Katherine as both a victim and a villain, as subjugated by the male members of the Lester family, but also as quite willing to abuse her own position over Sebastian and her maid, Anna (Naomi Ackie), the lone black face in the cast. She remains humanized and sympathetic throughout, even as her actions become more and more distressing. There are suggestions that her cruelty may be learned, but also that it may be something innate to Katherine, perhaps a survival mechanism triggered by the situation that she has found herself in. The moral ambivalence of the storytelling allows for some wonderfully unexpected tonal shifts and moments of dark humor.

Like "Columbus," "Lady Macbeth" is full of eye-catching visual compositions, most of them very cold and very stark. Katherine is often the the focal point. She's usually the most colorful object on the screen, dressed in the brightest hues or occasionally nothing at all, with many shots resembling classical paintings in the way that they're lit and staged. Likewise, the film is built around Florence Pugh's fantastic performance, which makes every moment of Katherine's gradual empowerment and corruption fascinating to watch. Pugh is able to get across so much tension and emotion by doing very little, and I especially enjoy her ability to be so menacing while simultaneously exulting in her girlish rebellion. I can't wait to see what she does next.

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