Kanopy

Columbus

If you’ve ever been a little bit enamoured with the design of a public building, this movie will recall that feeling. The sensation of lingering for long periods of time in front of a church, office tower, or bank that others pass by without really seeing. Director Kogonada’s debut picture is a love letter to the potential of architecture, and within that world, specifically the modernist style. 

Scenes are meditative, leisurely strolls through Columbus, Indiana, as if we are on a gentle tour of its monuments to modernism in the form of buildings. “Architecture nerd” Casey (Haley Lu Richardson) is a young woman grappling with worry about leaving her mother in order to move forward with her life. Richardson’s performance is the standout in my mind. John Cho’s character Jin, by contrast, resents his architecture professor father’s sudden illness and the translation job he’s ended up in. The kind of relationship these characters have is ambiguous. Columbus feels like a romance of sorts, just not one with a clear beginning or end. Instead, Casey and Jin seem like they’re in the middle of their own narratives with obstacles they must resolve before they can inhabit the same story. 

Unsurprisingly, Kogonada’s next picture After Yang garnered a lot of buzz when it came out in 2021. It’s an exploration of familial relationships, grief, and loss, but with a science fiction element: artificial intelligence.

Kids Content

I wanted to mention that Kanopy and Hoopla both have kids content as well. You can enable “kids mode” on both of them, similar to other streaming platforms. Hoopla has comics, movies that allow you to read along with the story, and popular music, including the excellent original soundtrack to Moana. 

Kanopy has animated television series like Madeleine and Paddington Bear. Mo Willem’s acclaimed children’s books videos are also available as animated videos in the original illustration style. 

Touchy Feely

I wanted to mention this independent movie because I remember it making a big impact on me. I think I saw Your Sister’s Sister first, but this was the first Lynn Shelton film that made me interested in her as a director. Touchy Feely is about a massage therapist named Abby (Rosemarie DeWitt) who becomes repelled by the idea of touching her clients’ bare skin. It’s also about Abby’s niece, played by trans actor Elliot Page (who went by Ellen at the time). 

The scenes between Page and Scoot McNairy, who plays Abby’s partner, were memorable and charged, and Alison Janney’s Reiki practitioner is a soothing counterpoint to the other characters collective anxiety. The tone and New Age atmosphere might not be everyone’s cup of herbal tea, but there are so many truly rewarding titles in Shelton’s filmography to choose from. Sadly, her life ended in tragedy when she died at just 54, but it’s comforting to know her films will still be available to watch and appreciate for all their wonderful weirdness.

Lightning Round

For fans of romantic comedies

Away We Go: great soundtrack by Alexi Murdoch. John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, and Maggie Gyllenhal all have roles. What more could you ask for?

The Boy Downstairs: Zosia Mamet (thief of every scene in Girls) is the heroine of this small budget rom com with a classic meet cute (for the second time). Diana and Ben are exes who are out of each other’s lives until the day Diana accidentally moves into the same brownstone. Drama ensues.

For fans of Taika Waititi

Boy: This is the movie that put the internet’s boyfriend on the map as a director. Boy is a semiautobiographical coming-of-age story shot in the New Zealand community Waititi hails from. As is his custom, he acts in the film as well. This time, he’s the titular character’s absent father who’s pulled up out of nowhere to visit. Roger Ebert was still alive when this film was released, and his review says it all. 

Let me know in the comments what you think and happy streaming!