“The Brutalist” Review – Breathtaking and Gigantic Cinema

“The Brutalist” is a three-and-a-half hour epic co-written and directed by Brady Corbet. It stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who emigrates to America in 1947 after surviving the Holocaust. As he attempts to rebuild his life and career in another nation, his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and their niece Zsófia remain in Hungary until they can meet him in America (which they finally do by the second half). After a few impoverished years as a coal miner, László is hired by the wealthy and charismatic industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) to construct a lavish community center — a project that will cost László blood, sweat, tears, and decades of his life. The film takes place over several decades following László’s many ups and downs, deconstructing and debunking the American Dream in dark, compelling, and unpredictable ways.

While the gargantuan runtime may seem imposing, don’t be scared off by it. “The Brutalist” earns that runtime. For one, it includes a gracious fifteen minute intermission, but more importantly it’s impeccably paced. This movie zips by. Corbet’s terrific screenplay, written alongside his wife Mona Fastvold, is a significant reason for the film’s strong pace. Each scene deepens the narrative, themes, and characters; not a minute is wasted. The film has a ton of ground to cover, not just in regards to the timespan but also the ideas/issues it explores, including capitalism, xenophobia, antisemitism, addiction, and the artist’s struggle to balance life and work.

Interestingly, while the themes and scale are so massive, the amount of characters is quite small in comparison to other epics. The film is very much a character study, with László in nearly every scene, and the few scenes without him exclusively focusing on either Erzsébet or Van Buren. Most of the film consists of extended dialogue scenes, but it’s all the better for it because the dialogue is absolutely exquisite. Multiple times throughout the film Van Buren tells László, “I find our conversations intellectually stimulating,” and one can’t help but agree with him. Corbet and Fastvold reach that fine line between high-brow and lofty pretension, making for consistently intriguing conversations that make the many dialogue scenes far more riveting than they otherwise would be.

“The Brutalist” is conclusively intimate in its focus, always emphasizing character development over grandiose visuals (of which it still has plenty, as I’ll discuss later). Thus, the film lives and dies on its protagonist being compelling enough to carry such a lengthy story, and László Tóth delivers. This is a deeply broken man, beaten down from his past in ways both the character and the script hide from us outside of a few hints. While he’s incredibly sympathetic in his underdog appeal and inspiring passion for architecture, he remains deeply flawed. László pursues sexual escapades outside of Erzsébet without a second thought, has severe substance addiction, and frequently puts himself and his work before his friends and family. Yet one can’t help but root for him to reach the American Dream, making the film’s ultimate message that the American Dream was really a myth even more devastating.

Adrien Brody’s powerhouse performance as László is easily one of the year’s best. He often underplays certain parts of the character, trusting the audience to pick up on the weight of the Holocaust behind László’s exhausted eyes, yet Brody also goes for the enormous flashy Oscar-reel moments of screaming and crying that one would expect from an awards contender. Brody is truly magnetic; even in the very few scenes he’s offscreen, you feel his presence. All of the other performances are likewise stellar, which proves Corbet’s talent as an actor’s director. Felicity Jones is devastating as Erzsébet, who’s stricken with osteoporosis after her experiences in the concentration camps, only to find a tortured and detached husband after their many years apart. Guy Pearce brings further complexity to the picture as Van Buren, who initially comes off as self-absorbed yet charismatic and funny enough to be likable (Pearce’s lines had my audience howling with laughter). Yet as we dive deeper into his character over the course of the story, we learn just how sinister and two-faced he truly is.

“The Brutalist” cost a mere $10 million, which is absolutely shocking given the scope and arresting visuals. With this being only his third film, Corbet has established himself as one of the great new auteurs in American independent cinema. Not only is he brilliant at concealing the tiny budget, but also at enrapturing the audience in a world that feels larger than life. Corbet clearly loves his long takes, as much of “The Brutalist” is filmed in lengthy unbroken shots that allow the audience to breathe in Lol Crawley’s gorgeous cinematography and provide the actors plenty of space to explore the characters. This is most noticeable in the claustrophobic opening boat sequence and in the ~10-minute oner of Erzsébet confronting Van Buren, with the camera moving across levels of his mansion as the confrontation becomes more and more hostile between both parties.

In addition to Corbet’s direction, the film’s technical prowess is inseparable from Daniel Blumberg’s extraordinary score and Lol Crawley’s filmic cinematography. Reminiscent of the great ’70s/’80s horns-driven compositions by John Williams, Blumberg’s masterwork is one of the very few scores released in the past decade that’s a real earworm. The recurring bombastic set of notes DUN-DUN-DUN, DUNNNNNNNN is a bolt of lightning that brings a sense of both wonderment and danger. The grandness of “The Brutalist” is likewise amplified by Crawley’s VistaVision cinematography, brimming with glorious ’70s film grain. Given that the film hinges on the beauty and appeal of László’s brutalist architecture, Crawley understands the need to heighten the angles and sharp edges across the screen.

I cannot exclusively laud “The Brutalist” with praise, however, as the second half struggles with an unwieldy narrative and a rushed (although ultimately satisfying) ending. There is a bold storytelling decision in the final hour between László and Van Buren that comes out of nowhere, and while I found it to be an exciting twist, I can understand how others would throw up their hands in frustration. I do believe this was a good move for the narrative, but it lacked the necessary buildup to earn the twist. Additionally, the film concludes far too rapidly. Once again, I enjoyed the individual story choices made, but they were sped through so quickly that you can’t wrap your head around them until you leave the theater and actually have the time to reflect on the events. Corbet had a serious issue with buildup and breathing room in the second half that was absent in the first half, and I assume this was because he didn’t want to make the film any longer.

Narrative rushing aside, “The Brutalist” is a great movie, one of the year’s best. As both an ode to Classic Hollywood and a demonstration of the dark, even demented risks modern independent cinema can take, the film succeeds with flying colors.

A-