After Yang

Columbus, the début feature by video essayist Kogonada, was one of the best, though least-seen, films of 2017. So perhaps my expectations were too high going into the writer/director's sophomore effort, the more high-profile A24 production After Yang. This metaphysical sci-fi family drama, set in the near future, follows a married couple (Colin Farrell & Jodie Turner-Smith) living with their adopted daughter and a refurbished robotic son named Yang. In theory, the couple purchased Yang (Justin H. Min) to help their child learn about her Asian heritage, but in practice, Yang has taken on the role of a caretaker, co-parent, and beloved companion. When Yang malfunctions, the father must confront issues in his family dynamic as well as more existential concerns.

Kogonada is obsessive about design, color, and composition. In Columbus, he offset that controlled, aloof aesthetic with an emotional narrative about flawed, messy, relatable characters. The dichotomy is one of the elements that make Columbus so fascinating, and it's what's missing in After Yang. Every shot in After Yang looks like it was staged for some high-end architecture magazine and then insufficiently lit by the photographer. Every emotion felt by the characters seems to exist at a cerebral level, displaced from actual humanity. I suppose that's part of the point—this isn't exactly a dystopian future, but the film is set at a time when the line between human, clone, and machine is difficult to notice. Still, the cautionary nature of this theme would be easier to embrace if the film didn't seem to fetishize the cold precision of non-human entities.

The line between a multilayered picture that invites the viewer to ponder the big questions of life and a ponderous picture that fails to connect the many themes it explores is both blurry and in the eye of the beholder. Still, that line becomes very clear when viewing Columbus and After Yang.