By Hannah Ryan | Contributor The 2017 film Columbus was screened on Tuesday as another fall semester Cinema Series feature at the Maxwell Theatre. Directed by Kogonada, the film’s main stars are John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson. The story follows a man named Jin (Cho) whose estranged father, an architecture scholar, goes into a coma while on business in Columbus, Ind. Jin must go to Columbus to look after his father. He meets Casey (Richardson), a bright, young college graduate and an "architect nerd." The two explore the city's architecture while simultaneously helping each other figure out what to do with their lives. Visually speaking, this film is remarkable. It draws on the subject matter of architecture. It artfully and poetically captures the modern and postmodern architecture found in the town of Columbus, Ind. It does this with dynamic wide angle shots and pausing the camera on these images for longer than a typical audience may be used to. In conjunction with the images, it brings in natural sounds that interact with these buildings. Sounds such as rain hitting a sidewalk and echoing through a tunnel, of the sound of voices bouncing off walls, or of the steps of a woman’s heels and a men's loafers walking along a surface. The lighting is nothing short of wonderful as well. The exceptional use of outdoor lighting is breathtaking especially when taking into consideration how unpredictable the weather can be. During the night or evening scenes, much of the lighting present seemed to be from the buildings that the characters were observing. Many times a harsh florescent light of an office building or bank would fall on Richardson's face so perfectly you would think she was looking at a sunset. Speaking of Richardson, she really made her debut as an actress to watch through her performance in Columbus. She was most recently seen in the popular thriller Split, and before that she had a significant role in The Edge of Seventeen starring Woody Harrelson, both of which were released in 2016. Cho’s performance was nothing to complain about either. The balance of cultural diversity and difference in age made them a perfect duo. They are both subtle performers but their expressions go a long way. We see a few tears roll down Richardson’s cheek but her eyes and acute expressions were the real tear jerkers for the audience. The film’s first premiere was at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 22. It has received high praise in the overall critical consensus and an approval rating of 97% on film review aggregator site, Rotten Tomatoes. In a New York Times review of the film, Ben Kenigsberg says “The existence of a debut as confident and allusive as 'Columbus' is almost as improbable as the existence of Columbus, Ind., where the movie is set." Variety writer Geoff Berkshire described the film as a “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." With such high praise, it's a surprise and a shame this film didn't make it to more big screens. The film made its first and probably only big screen debut in Augusta, Ga., at the Maxwell Theatre and was certainly not one to miss. Thanks to the work of communication professor Matthew Buzzell, yet another stunning arthouse film was brought to the big screen for students, faculty, and the community of Augusta. Contact Hannah Ryan at hryan@augusta.edu.