There were few times throughout the course of this three-and-a-half hour fictional biography when my jaw was sewn tight and not magnetized to the floor. Stunning, shocking, risk-taking, and mind-boggling, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist whips audiences around a spinning ride in the dark while simultaneously serving us beautiful architecture, costumes, light, and color. As much as the beautiful set pieces and cinematography sparkle, its gut-wrenching horror and pain are its most residual aspects. Spanning four decades, the story that seems too tangible to be untrue highlights the career of the famous Hungarian fictional architect and Holocaust survivor, László Tóth, played by Adrien Brody.
From the opening scene where Tóth lands on Ellis Island, I knew this wouldn’t be a regular Scorsese-length, life-spanning biopic. Divided into two parts and with a 15-minute intermission, The Brutalist reads more like a book than a film at times, just by the sheer width and depth that it allows itself to go to. Spanning the mid-1940s to the early 1980s, the film captures the life of a man burdened by both a horrific past and a bright future. The camera often moves in spirals, in pitch darkness and in blinding light, reminiscent of a Fellini film. When we finally get a glimpse of Lady Liberty along with Tóth as he arrives in the U.S., she’s upside down and shaken up, while he is elated, hopeful, and smiling. Much of the film is directed through the lens of a handheld camera, which many might find dizzying at times. The constant movement added reality, tension, and urgency in a piece that could have easily been a snoozefest in the wrong hands. Even though Corbet isn’t trying to do anyone of reality justice, the length of the film makes the places that it ends up going that much more intense and honorable to humanity.
Even the title sequence- pulling from its stunning trailer- stands out among its contenders. In fact, there is no competition. The text and symbols roll along horizontally while the road in front of a car races perpendicular, which speaks for the rest of the film in its foundational grounded-ness but also its transience. Getting a sneak peak of this sequence in trailer form was not just eye-candy for designers, but refreshing to see such care being taken into account in the film’s small details, and was equally reflected throughout its entire 215 minutes. The film’s soundtrack and sound design were just as moving, surprising, and innovative.
The standout performances of the film are easy to spot. Brody’s range of emotion as Tóth is both vital and remarkable, and he leaves enough room for other characters to shine while being the backbone that ebbs and flows throughout his own story. It is refreshing to see Brody in a leading role once again, he’s still got it in him! Guy Pearce’s performance as Harrison Lee Van Buren, (a wealthy tycoon that hires Tóth for the project of a lifetime) is similar in ways. His personality transforms as his relationship to Tóth, his work, and his family does. However, Pearce has such a shocking command of the screen and its depths, to the point that you can’t look away from him even for a second or something of importance will be missed. I wouldn’t say that this film is mainly centered on the relationship between these two characters, but it very much could have been just about these two. Brody and Pierce breathe life into very different men that ultimately bond and work together for years on a singular, decades-spanning project: a community center developed in memory of the late Van Buren matriarch.
Felicity Jones as László’s wife, Erzsébet, stagnantly but brewing-ly provides us with another side to Tóth, and Joe Alwyn as Harry (the conniving son of Harrison) really only stands out in his character’s final moments on screen.
I’ve been ruminating on this film for a while. After watching Corbet’s 2018 film Vox Lux starring Natalie Portman as a troubled pop singer following a school shooting, themes of loss and grief that propel us to unusual places seem to drive both of these films. Kind of like its architectural namesake, The Brutalist is as heavy and solid as it is experimental, but with much more to the surface than the eyes can see. I expect a rewarding Oscars season on the horizon.
★ ★ ★ ★ ½ / ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
From the opening scene where Tóth lands on Ellis Island, I knew this wouldn’t be a regular Scorsese-length, life-spanning biopic. Divided into two parts and with a 15-minute intermission, The Brutalist reads more like a book than a film at times, just by the sheer width and depth that it allows itself to go to. Spanning the mid-1940s to the early 1980s, the film captures the life of a man burdened by both a horrific past and a bright future. The camera often moves in spirals, in pitch darkness and in blinding light, reminiscent of a Fellini film. When we finally get a glimpse of Lady Liberty along with Tóth as he arrives in the U.S., she’s upside down and shaken up, while he is elated, hopeful, and smiling. Much of the film is directed through the lens of a handheld camera, which many might find dizzying at times. The constant movement added reality, tension, and urgency in a piece that could have easily been a snoozefest in the wrong hands. Even though Corbet isn’t trying to do anyone of reality justice, the length of the film makes the places that it ends up going that much more intense and honorable to humanity.
Even the title sequence- pulling from its stunning trailer- stands out among its contenders. In fact, there is no competition. The text and symbols roll along horizontally while the road in front of a car races perpendicular, which speaks for the rest of the film in its foundational grounded-ness but also its transience. Getting a sneak peak of this sequence in trailer form was not just eye-candy for designers, but refreshing to see such care being taken into account in the film’s small details, and was equally reflected throughout its entire 215 minutes. The film’s soundtrack and sound design were just as moving, surprising, and innovative.
The standout performances of the film are easy to spot. Brody’s range of emotion as Tóth is both vital and remarkable, and he leaves enough room for other characters to shine while being the backbone that ebbs and flows throughout his own story. It is refreshing to see Brody in a leading role once again, he’s still got it in him! Guy Pearce’s performance as Harrison Lee Van Buren, (a wealthy tycoon that hires Tóth for the project of a lifetime) is similar in ways. His personality transforms as his relationship to Tóth, his work, and his family does. However, Pearce has such a shocking command of the screen and its depths, to the point that you can’t look away from him even for a second or something of importance will be missed. I wouldn’t say that this film is mainly centered on the relationship between these two characters, but it very much could have been just about these two. Brody and Pierce breathe life into very different men that ultimately bond and work together for years on a singular, decades-spanning project: a community center developed in memory of the late Van Buren matriarch.
Felicity Jones as László’s wife, Erzsébet, stagnantly but brewing-ly provides us with another side to Tóth, and Joe Alwyn as Harry (the conniving son of Harrison) really only stands out in his character’s final moments on screen.
I’ve been ruminating on this film for a while. After watching Corbet’s 2018 film Vox Lux starring Natalie Portman as a troubled pop singer following a school shooting, themes of loss and grief that propel us to unusual places seem to drive both of these films. Kind of like its architectural namesake, The Brutalist is as heavy and solid as it is experimental, but with much more to the surface than the eyes can see. I expect a rewarding Oscars season on the horizon.
★ ★ ★ ★ ½ / ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
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