The Brutalist Review
A couple days back I was able to watch one of the Best Picture nominees, The Brutalist on the big screen. This is one that I didn’t know much about, I knew it involved the Holocaust and it starred Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce. How is this movie? Is it worthy of a Best Picture nomination and possible win? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
What I thought this did so well, was despite having a $10 million budget it’s able to feel both big scale while being personal. This is a great example of when you take a talented filmmaker, what they can do with a small budget. Some of the shots in this movie are absolutely gorgeous to look at. The opening minutes of the movie show Adrien Brody’s character immigrating from Hungary to the United States and it feels big and massive. There’s this show of The Statue of Liberty, that’s been used as the main movie poster for the film and it just looks incredible. But all throughout the movie, you get these shots that are flawless. I would love to talk with Brady Corbet, the director about how he shots some of this. It’s not like they had a massive budget where they could use CGI. They had to use practical sets, it just looks incredible. While it feels massive, at its center it’s a very personal story about a guy pursuing the American dream and him reuniting with his wife and niece. You’re rooting for Brody’s character because what he wants is so relatable. He keeps on getting caught up in these heartbreaking situations. “Epic” is the best word to describe this movie, it’s this big epic tale that spans decades, it’s three and half hours long. It’s able to do all of this, without having to spend $100, $200 million.
Along those same lines, the character arc and journey for the lead character, László Tóth. Both the movie itself and the character of László go on this emotional roller coaster. You feel emotional at points, you feel bad but there’s also a sense of optimism. It makes you feel a whole lot of different things throughout the movie. Both elements have this sense of optimism present in the movie. Where László is this guy that’s optimistic about America. He’s escaping the horrifying nature of The Holocaust. He comes to America that doesn’t have those same levels of horrifying nature, so he’s optimistic that this can be a new start for him. Because László is optimistic, the movie itself is very optimistic. The beginning of the movie assumes the best of people. But as you go throughout the movie you get all of these situations that make that optimistic nature start to fade. I don’t wanna spoil anything that happens in the back half of the movie. But there’s some scenes where it turns optimism on its head and you start disliking certain characters. I was afraid that it was going to keep this one note throughout the entire movie. But it doesn’t, it messes with your emotions. You can feel optimism very often while also making you very sad at points. As you go throughout the movie and you see what happened, you feel bad for László and what he's gone through. It adds complexity to the character as you see all that he’s gone through and how he responded to some of it.
Another aspect to talk about here are the performances. Everybody in this movie is giving it their all and doing great work. I know there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the performances of Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. I don’t think that factors into performances that much, I didn’t find those additions distracting at all. I haven’t really seen any of Brody’s movies. I know he’s a world class talent, but his movies aren’t ones that I’ve gravitated towards. This movie shows that he’s a world class talent, he can deliver big emotional moments. The movie is 3 ½ hours long and it’s about 90% scenes with him. There’s very few scenes that he’s not in. The whole movie is on his shoulders, if he wasn’t great then the movie wouldn’t work. Felicity Jones plays Brody’s husband in the movie. She first physically appears in the second half of the movie, after intermission so there’s this build up and anticipation to see her character and what she’s like. She’s giving a great performance, she’s able to hold her own and gets several great scenes in the back half of the movie. The one that really surprised me was Guy Pearce. He’s been in Hollywood for over 20 years now, he’s been a solid actor ever since Memento came out. What he does in this movie is pretty fantastic. His character is so layered and complex and what they do with his character in the movie makes you not sure if you can trust him or not. He’s absolutely worthy of a Best Supporting Actor nomination, for me it’s the race between him and Kieran Culkin. There’s even a good bit of mystery surrounding his character in the back half of the movie.
Another thing that immediately stood out to me about this movie was the score. From the very beginning, the score plays and it compels you and hooks you. It’s one of the most surprising scores of the year. What I mean by that, it’s a score that you wouldn’t expect for a movie like this. It got Oscar nominated so I figured it would be good or memorable. I expected a somber score that fits the more tragic nature of the movie. But the score is so much more than that, it’s epic and powerful. From the opening scene of the movie the score plays and it’s fantastic. Like I mentioned earlier, one of the iconic shots of the movie is a shot of The Statue of Liberty. When you first see that shot, the score plays and you get a sense for the movie that you’re on. All throughout the movie the score plays in a way that captivates you, it elevates the scene and the material. Even when it breaks for intermission the scenes that come before that, could play like this one note scene. But the score plays it makes the scene end on a high note before it goes to intermission for 15 minutes.
Finally, I appreciate that the movie doesn’t feel the need to answer all of its questions. The one common negative I’ve heard about the movie is the ending. It’s a very ambiguous ending that I kind of appreciate. Without spoiling anything, they don’t follow up on a certain character after a certain scene is done. The friend that I saw the movie with, we both had different ideas and theories as to what happened. If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Even where they leave Adrien Brody’s character and everything is very ambiguous. Everybody is going to have a different perspective on what happened. I think with. Movies like this add to it when you don’t know all of the answers.
The Bad
The big thing to talk about with this movie, it’s way too long. As soon as I heard it was 3 hours and 35 minutes, I knew my biggest negative was going to be the runtime. Having seen the movie, that’s absolutely the case. There’s been a lot of talks about movies being way too long. People saying this miss 90 minute movies. If you’re one of those people, wait to watch this movie at home on streaming or just don’t watch it at all. On the one hand, seeing this movie on the big screen was so cool. This is a movie that’s meant to be seen on IMAX and the biggest screen. If you’re interested in this movie, go check it out in theaters. At the same time, there probably is a factor in watching this movie at home. You can pause it when you need to, you’re not sitting down for one sitting. With this movie, you can trim 15-20 minutes from the movie. It does not need to be 3 hours and 35 minutes long. To warn people, there is a rape sequence towards the end of the movie. It’s not graphic, you don’t see any body parts. It’s this emotional gut punch in a sense, but I don’t know if it was fully needed. They used it as a way to present some of the conflict in the back half of the movie. I think there were ways earlier in the movie that could have communicated it better and shortened the movie.
Also, this is a movie that I can greatly respect. It is something totally unique and a true Oscar bait movie. Just because something is Oscar bait, doesn’t make it a bad thing. Since it’s so good at what it’s doing, this is a movie that I don’t know under what context I would rewatch this movie. It’s a very dense movie, it’s long, and it's a sad subject matter. There’s not a lot in this movie that makes it super rewatchable. I can see why other people would watch this movie and love it. For the last month or so, this is the movie that Film Twitter is declaring a masterpiece and it’s true cinema. I’m not on that wavelength, this is not a movie designed for me. It’s well made, it’s well shot, you get great performances. But as a whole, this is a movie that’s not for me and I think that’s ok.
Final Thoughts: The Brutalist fits the world, epic. The story that’s being told spans decades. It’s shot with these massive shots and angles that have this epic nature to it. The performances from Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce are fantastic. I can see why some people love this movie and view it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. I’m not one of those people. It’s very good, I appreciate and love it so much. But it’s a movie that’s way too long and not necessarily my thing.
The Score: 8.7/10 (B+)
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