January 20, 2025 · Watch the official trailer
There's a scene in the opening moments of writer/director Brady Corbet's “The Brutalist” that announces the arrival of what audiences should expect to be another great American epic.
Adrian Brody portraying a Jewish-Hungarian Jewish refugee and Holocaust survivor looks wondrously at his surroundings on a ship only to reveal the Statue of Liberty immediately overhead and the awe-inspiring, “this is the American dream” motif cries out as an almost photographic emergence of an auteur with something very important to say.
And yet in the almost 190 minutes that follow, Corbet’s three-hour odyssey complete with 15-minute intermission is so overtly heady in its self-serving nature that “The Brutalist” will be relatively inaccessible for more casual audiences or for those who don't seem to be in lock step with Corbet in every moment of the film.
Told into almost an equal 100-minute installments, “The Brutalist” follows Brody’s László Tóth as he navigates the world of high and low society in a post-World War II era America that is exceptionally idealistic in its capitalism and simultaneously accepting and weary of refugee immigrants whose only worth is in what they can do to elevate the status of the rich.
The fundamental dichotomy at the heart of “The Brutalist” is the back and forth verbal, intellectual, and sociological dichotomy between Brody’s Tóth and Guy Pearce’s Harrison Van Buren, respectively portraying a struggling architect on the fringes of society and his exceedingly wealthy patron, who come together to create a monolithic building meant to signify great importance though neither of the two agree on what that importance is for each other or perhaps even for themselves.
It's difficult to examine Brody's performance here without thinking of his Oscar-winning turn in “The Pianist,” where he also plays a Holocaust survivor and his ability to become a reluctant everyman protagonist through nonverbal facial expressions and a relatively meek persona allows audiences to engage with the material of the film with the questioning wonder that Corbet clearly defines throughout the film’s screenplay.
While the ups and downs of Laszló’s mental health due to trauma endured during the Holocaust and his burgeoning heroin addiction could be too daunting a task for some actors, Brody approaches the role head-on and the subtle nuances to his physical performance linger on the frame to make a much deeper impact on the viewer than the actual dialogue itself.
Conversely, “The Brutalist” has no qualms about making the eccentric patron Van Buren the antagonist of the film and while Pearce never plays the part as a true villain, it's clear throughout Pearce's performance that allegories transform Van Buren into essentially a stand in for the affluent class as a whole unwilling to treat outsiders as equals.
Oscar nominee Felicity Jones' impacts in the film’s second half is not done by force, though her arrival as László's wife, Erzsébet does help reinforce the larger narrative shift that “The Brutalist” undertakes in the five-year time jump between the conclusion of part one heading into part two.
The soft demure of her performance slowly begins to bubble into something greater and deeper as Erzsébet comes to understand the mental and emotional toll that's László’s obsession with his work is having on him and her demonstrative final scene has some of the most resonant impact on the overall course of the film as a whole.
“The Brutalist” as a whole has a stern, raw, affecting visual style that matches cinematic visuals of the time and also reinforces the stoicism of the film's major characters and the singularity of the monoliths that the film and its characters are trying to create.
There are certain moments of singular iconography within “The Brutalist” that are memorably and masterfully shot by cinematographer Lol Crawley whose approach utilizing 1950s era VistaVision film creates a dynamic, resonant widescreen look to the film that only very nuanced, considered auteurs would take the time to develop in such a conscientious way.
“The Brutalist” recently took home Best Picture – Drama at the Golden Globe Awards and is expected to be a frontrunner when Academy Award nominations are announced before the end of the month. It's likely that anywhere from 8- 12 nominations will be given to Corbet's third major feature including Best Picture, directing, original screenplay, numerous technical nods, and perhaps as many as three acting nominations for Brody, Pearce, and Jones.
“The Brutalist” is probably best seen in a large-format theatrical setting where the grandiose nature of the cinematography can be enjoyed in a closed environment with minimal distractions, though the exceedingly long run time and headiness of the narrative as a whole may prove to be too challenging for more casual audiences to take a chance on outside the comfort of their own home.
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