I’m not as passionate about Ladybird as most (neither was my partner, who also went through Catholic school in the early oughts, a target demo if there ever was one). But both of us loved how Gerwig’s indie, unlike so many others out there, found time to give every supporting character a life outside of Christine and her high-school angst.

In one of Columbus‘s early scenes, Jin presses Casey to stop reciting trivia and explain what actually moves her about a particular building. As she begins to answer, the camera shifts to the building's interior. Separated from the conversation by a pane of glass, we're left to watch in silence—and wonder what Casey had to say.

The scene is brilliant, beautiful, and a bit alienating—which pretty much sums up how I felt about the whole movie.

I finished the movie and promptly went to my whiteboard. What followed was a disaster, but the movie? Excellent.

Wife's take: The Coen brothers do a Wes Anderson film.