“The Brutalist”
R/Drama/215 Mins
Directed by: Brady Corbet
Written by: Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
Starring: Adrien Brody (“The Pianist”), Felicity Jones (“The Theory of Everything”), Guy Pearce (“Memento)”, Joe Alwyn (“Kinds of Kindness”), Raffey Cassidy (“Vox Lux”), Isaach de Bankolé (“Chocolat”), Stacy Martin (“Vox Luz”), Emma Laird (“Mayor of Kingstown”) and Alessandro Nivola (“The Art of Self-Defense”)
Review: It is common to watch a film and think that it’s good or even great. You walk out of the theater on a high of emotions, your brain is exploding with thoughts and have that need to discuss and analyze what you’ve just seen. And then there are times where you watch “The Brutalist”, and you walk out feeling those feelings, except it feels a little different. That’s because you have the feeling that you’ve just watched a film that may very well be regarded as a classic of cinema in time to come. Yeah…it’s that phenomenal.
“The Brutalist” follows László Tóth, an Hungarian-Jewish architect emigrating to America during World War II after being separated from his wife and his niece. Settling in Philadelphia, he helps out his cousin with their successful furniture store. Shortly after, the two are given the task to renovate a wealthy industrialist’s library. Enamored by László’s vision and craft, the industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren, commissions him to erect a one-of-a-kind community center for the town. In turn, changing the course of László’s life forever. What follows is a decades-long journey of the trials and tribulations trying to build this ambitious monument and the achievement and loss of the American Dream.
From the opening minutes this film grabs you by your senses. Featuring a disorienting sequence of László getting off the boat in New York , the big brass-heavy score booming over the theater’s speakers and then a free handed camera pans upside down to the figure of the Statue of Liberty. Moments like these made the entire audience’s jaw drop. Moments like this are why I love the art form of cinema.
Anchoring this beast of a film is the staggering performance given by Adrien Brody. Brody portrays László with such raw complexity making him a complicated, yet, very human figure. He’s a man who suffers from drug use and infidelity yet he has a caring heart and thinks in the best interest to achieve a better life for himself and his family. If Brody doesn’t win the Academy Award for Best Actor, it will be a huge opportunity missed, the best performance I’ve seen this year. Same can be said for the Supporting Actor category in regard to Guy Pearce’s enigmatic performance as Harrison Lee Van Buren. The second he bursts onto the screen yelling his head off, you know that Pearce was eating up this eccentric and unpredictable role he was given. A character that says anything and everything in his mind not caring what people think of him. Throughout the first act and a bit in the second, he becomes a character you hate to like. That is until (no major spoilers) a certain disturbing scene occurs in the latter half of the film where your entire view shifts on Van Buren and he becomes the most evil figure in the film. Pearce did a tremendous job playing a despicable person.
For the first two hours of this gargantuan almost 4 hour runtime, you think you have just watched two of the best performances of the year. That is until you reach Act II and Felicity Jones’ Erzsébet (László’s wife) captivates the screen. Jones gives an immensely vulnerable and emotional performance. While László was able to escape to America, Erzsébet had to endure every hardship and in doing so affected her physically, bounding her to a wheelchair and mentally. Yet, this made her strong willed and is the bravest character in the film. Especially during a standout scene where she literally stands her ground to people who have caused nothing but trouble for her family. That scene alone should have her performance locked in for a nomination for Best Actress.
Like I mentioned before, this film’s runtime is LONG. 3 hours and 55 mins to be exact. However, thanks to a 15 minute intermission between Act I & II, you hardly feel the length. That’s also because the film is so engrossing, I honestly could have sat through another hour. When a filmmaker like Brady Corbet can tell a great story with so much emotion and purpose, length does not matter. I also genuinely think that Brady Corbet is one of the next great filmmakers of a generation. Since Corbet came from an acting background most of his career, previously working with the likes of incredible visionary filmmakers such as: Michael Haneke, Lars Von Trier, Gregg Araki and Olivier Assayas, is very evident with his approach to filmmaking. Yet, he still has his own distinct and singular vision. Adding to this vision was the decision to shoot on 35mm film stock using the VistaVision (the opening VV logo got a handful of cheers in the audience) process and cameras. Since I watched this at the Austin Film Festival, I was lucky to watch this projected on 35mm and seeing the grain, hearing the crisp sound crackle and the cigarette burns in the top right of the screen made this experience more immersive and true to the period. I hope to catch the 70mm print when it officially releases and fingers crossed IMAX shows it, similar to last year’s Oppenheimer, cause I need to see this on an even BIGGER screen.
I can write a longer review analyzing every single thing I loved about this film but I hope these thoughts persuade you to go see “The Brutalist” with an open mind (and an open schedule) to see this absolute masterpiece of a film in a cinema.
Score: 10/10
“The Brutalist” will be released in theaters on December 20th
