We often talk about the newest crop of rising actors and actresses, but what of this generation’s directors? The discussion may dissolve into layers of difficulty. Is the starting line placed where a director has first started making films, or from their breakout hit, like Sean Baker (he’s in his fifties!?)? Do we consider their filmography’s reviews-batting average, like Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele? Do we hit a cognitive road block when we try to compare directors of different genres together (Joseph Kosinski vs Ari Aster)? 

How do I begin to talk about Kogonada and his latest film, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey? There are things that I did not plan on talking about, like my distaste for the heavily lauded Columbus (Letterboxd reminds me that I hated this movie, which seems overly dramatic in hindsight) and how the title reminds me of an unfortunate, similar-sounding government bill. Though his films have not touched my heart in the ways that they have for others, I’m always open to changing my mind. But listen: when there is a pattern afoot, you can bet that I’m standing in the corner, pointing that shit out like Leonardo DiCaprio in that meme.

If you didn’t recognize that the person who directed A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is responsible for the poignant sci-fi After Yang, you are forgiven. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is strangely marketed as a sweeping time-jumping romance, inviting the soft hearts for Eternal Sunshine and the fantasy visitors of La La Land (both of which are very distinct and successful romantic movies of the 21st century). After Sundance Institute and A24 distributed his first two films respectively, Kogonada is given just the director’s role for this movie distributed by Sony Pictures. It may be that this company is not equipped to understand Kogonada’s vision or give him space for the editing or writing process. I’m not sure if there were backend compromises to make this movie happen. While I didn’t like Beau is Afraid, I can understand Aster’s voice in it. I can’t fathom what happened to Kogonada, even when his recognizable prismatic flares come on screen and the cinematic framing is more enjoyable than not.

Here is what I can estimate: the two leads, Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, are some of today’s most established actors who will most likely contribute to bringing most of the filled seats across theaters for this movie. Once again, Farrell has no issue containing his twilight wolfish charm into a sheepish careerman named David, playing to the script’s call for an older man who will find faults outside his actions and expectations for still being single. Robbie is Sarah, who speaks and talks and feels like a character but does not have any defining features outside of being the daughter of a dead mother. Within the confines of magical circumstances, they rent the same 1997 Saturns from a car agency that suggests that there is more than meets the eye. They meet at a friend’s wedding where they exchange their contrasting beliefs in marriage and dancing in public. Nonetheless, David and Sarah cross paths again at a Burger King (okay, that’s my love story!), which was recommended by the GPS that they had also rented from the car agency. Without putting explanatory labels on what’s happening, they embark on a journey that leads them to revisiting each other’s history past.

Very little can save the horridness of a flat, simple-minded script, surprisingly one that had landed on the Black List back in 2022. Written by satire writer Seth Reiss, the film’s lack of charm is perplexing, given that the writer had the chance to transpose any sort of bite from his work at The Onion. The film suffers from the absence of a push or pull, denouncing any stake between the two characters to make it or break it at the end. While Eternal Sunshine‘s Clementine and Joel are clearly opposite personalities, watching them bring out the best and worst in each other makes the viewing experience so dynamic. When David and Sarah go on top of a lighthouse or look down at Earth from space, I feel as much authentic chemistry as I imagine there was authentic girlhood there was on Lauren Sanchez’s space crew. 

“I’ll break your heart, so stop falling in love with me!” Sarah says in different variations, giving the opportunity for me to groan in different variations. It’s a disaster stage, lacking in coordination of the abundant talent and the recognition of what could have been. Granted, I falsely anticipated that I was going to follow a whimsical adventure, where Farrell and Robbie run and stumble after each other on a course set by longtime Miyazaki collaborator Joe Hisaishi’s playful musical composition. I would have even lingered to a sort of latent preciousness in Kogonada’s interpretation of falling in love, understanding the comfort in using Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life” as the hopeful kind of dive into the scary unknown. But with an ending so sordidly bland, I expected 2010’s Regina Spektor to close us out – but wait, you’re giving us a new Mitski cover? How many more people can be dragged on this journey?

I feel for everyone on this project. I think there was another alternate universe in which this film would have killed in all sorts of ways. And truthfully, I would still give Kogonada another chance. Maybe in another lifetime, it’ll work out.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
2025
dir. Kogonada
109 min.

Now playing @ Kendall Square Cinema, Apple Cinemas Cambridge, Alamo Drafthouse Boston Seaport, and all local AMCs