Director: Brady Corbet
Actors: Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn
Genre: Drama
Rating: MA
‘The Brutalist’ is both a simple film and a very complex
film. On one hand, it’s about a man, Laszlo Toth (Brody) immigrating from Hungary
to the USA after WWII and trying to get his wife, Erzsebet (Jones) to join him
in Pennsylvania where he’s designing a building. But then, at 3.5 hours, it’s
also an examination of everything happening in post-war-America – racism, homelessness,
drugs, religion, power and wealth inequality. It really covers a lot of ground
for the perspective on the Toths – even more impressive seeing how long it take
Erzsebet/Elizabeth to appear in the film!
There’s a now-novel 15min intermission, after 100min, which
is good – time for a frozen Coke! – and makes the whole film feel faster
somehow. While not immediately obvious, the film does turn to be about brutalist
architecture when Laszlo is taken under the wing of millionaire Harrison (Pearce)
and his son Harry (Alwyn) and commissioned to make his vision of an
auditorium/chapel/gym come true. Even though the place Laszlo is supposedly creating
his building is near Philadelphia, it’s actually filmed on location in Budapest
(where the Toths have come from). Also good to see the real-life marble quarry
in Italy.
It's worth noting the Laszlo’s story isn’t based on a true
story, but are a conglomeration of other 1940s/1950s architects. It’s
impressive that the drawings/models/designs/sets are original and not copies of
real-life buildings. The film looks great, the score is good, and while some
scenes may be too long (particularly a few very confronting scenes!) it
otherwise moves along relatively briskly, with no subtitled years to tell us
where we’re at. All the actors are captivating and their dialogue and (often
questionable) decisions propel the film, with Brody and Jones both great and
Pearce superb. At it’s core, the film asks – who’s actually the titular brutalist?
Overall: Won’t be surprised if this wins the Oscar
Gav's Rating: 4 stars
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