[Film Review] The Brutalist (by Ander Barkley)

The Brutalist (2024) Escaping postwar Europe, a visionary architect comes to America to rebuild his life, his career, and his marriage. On his own in a strange new country, he settles in Pennsylvania, where a wealthy and prominent industrialist recognizes his talent.

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is a visually striking and emotional exploration of identity and sacrifice that exceeds expectations visually and artistically. It follows a Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth (played by Adrian Brody) and his wife Erzsebet (played by Felicity Jones) as they emigrate to post-war America for a new start. This film shows the artistic vision of Lazlo in this rapidly changing world, the direction in which his work goes is stunning as the director uses aesthetics of brutalist architecture using rigid compositions to reflect Lazlo’s emotions.

The cinematography is incredibly stunning and could even keep you distracted at times admiring what they were able to achieve along with the set designs, and the acting even more incredibly raw and perfected with the supporting cast being some of the best we’ve seen this year, even taking notes from some of the world’s most beautiful structures. It makes you appreciate The Brutalist architecture even more when you watch it. Another thing I found insanely interesting is that there was a 15 minute intermission directly in the middle of this 3 hour and 35 minute masterpiece, it was the first major film to have an intermission since 1982’s “Gandhi.”

This film mixes art and emotion in a way that captivates you in a way that keeps you on your toes, along with the acting that has you in awe the whole time while your face is matching their emotion without you even realizing it. The film doesn’t just focus on the architecture but also on how it affects people’s lives and relationships, it’s a thoughtful take that makes you reflect on the spaces we inhabit and their impact on us.

While being quite longer than the average movie it feels like an adventure throughout and it’ll go by like that and you won’t even notice which, in my opinion, is a feat within itself. Not a lot of movies are capable of that keeping you entertained throughout its entirety while also being very long. Another reason it could be considered a masterpiece is it is very far from a subtle film and it never tries to be with the in-your face symbolism, there is a lot of achievement and takeaways from this. I think it can be appreciated it in most age groups especially if your into films that mix art, emotion, and a bit of existential pondering. After seeing this movie, I immediately went and told everyone I knew to go see this so they wouldn’t miss out.