Across three features, essayist-turned-filmmaker Kogonada has established himself as a kind of experimental cinematic therapist in search of the ideal conditions under which to probe the human mind. His debut Columbus (2017) threw two strangers (John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson) up against an entire city of mid-century modern architecture, all smooth lines, bare concrete, and nowhere to hide. After Yang (2021) forced a couple (Jodie Turner-Smith and Colin Farrell) to evaluate their work as parents via a defunct robot with a hidden memory bank.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey now sees Turner-Smith and Farrell reunite – sort of – as a magical GPS system and the chronically single man she guides through an immersive, memory-recall road trip. Farrell’s David is joined on this trip by an equally unattached stranger, Margot Robbie’s Sarah. David and Sarah both have their excuses for why two such aggressively beautiful people have chosen to remain alone. They’re lying to themselves, of course. The truth can be found somewhere in their childhoods. Luckily, fate has saved them from some very pricey psychoanalyst appointments via a series of doors to the past, which materialise during the long drive back from a mutual acquaintance’s wedding.
