Writer-director Brady Corbet takes a wildly ambitious approach, dealing with ideas on the scale of a Brutalist building, sometimes with just as little subtlety in its designs \u2014 but not necessarily to the film\u2019s detriment. Its complicated protagonist, the Brutalist of the title, is an uncompromising Hungarian-Jew architect who escaped the Holocaust but not its lingering trauma or the continued prejudice in America for both Jews and foreigners. The Brutalist <\/em>raises questions about America itself and how class, power, and immigration threaten the so-called American dream. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet for all its heavy themes and that lengthy running time, The Brutalist<\/em> is absolutely thrilling. There\u2019s a sense of pure wonder and astonishment throughout; you hit the halfway mark at the intermission and feel like no time has passed. Corbet has made a visionary film about an equally visionary subject, and it\u2019s just a marvel to behold at every moment. It\u2019s almost too much, but I could not get enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The face of architect L\u00e1szl\u00f3 T\u00f3th (Adrien Brody, aiming for a second Oscar) looks like it could\u2019ve been drawn by one of his fellow devotees of the Brutalist style; it\u2019s all harsh angles and isn\u2019t agreed on by everyone to be beautiful. \u201cYour face is ugly,\u201d says a sex worker on his first night after arriving in America in 1947. \u201cI know it is,\u201d L\u00e1szl\u00f3 replies. He leaves the shadow of the Statue of Liberty behind, embarking on a bus trip to Philadelphia, where his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) has put down roots, obscured his family\u2019s Hungarian origins, and started a furniture business called Miller and Sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n L\u00e1szl\u00f3 is a complex character, but the film doesn\u2019t debate his talent as an architect. His creative output is stunning, drawing gasps for both its beauty and invention. Vox Lux<\/em> and The Childhood of a Leader<\/em> director Corbet is as impressive an artist himself here, both in the themes he tackles and in the filmmaking techniques he uses to express them. It seems lazy to argue that a film should be seen on the big screen (because most should be), but it\u2019s impossible to overstate how seeing The Brutalist <\/em>in a theater is essential given the scale of, well, everything in Lol Crawley\u2019s cinematography. It isn\u2019t just the buildings, both Brutalist and otherwise; it\u2019s the scope of natural vistas and the tiniest emotions betrayed on these characters\u2019 faces as they try to steel themselves. The cast also includes Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Isaach De Bankol\u00e9, and Raffey Cassidy, and each actor plays their roles with precision and vitality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the destination, not the journey,\u201d says a character at the story\u2019s end, and while there is much value to the journey in The Brutalist<\/em>, its epilogue is only when its true aims become clear. Like the spire mounted atop the Chrysler Building at the last minute to vault the Art Deco skyscraper ahead of a rival building, the final scene (and the song that plays over the end credits) push The Brutalist<\/em> into the stratosphere. This is masterful filmmaking and a joy to watch, despite its often heavy subject matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Brutalist” opens this weekend in limited release.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/brutalist2-1024x576.jpeg\")
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L\u00e1szl\u00f3 begins working in his cousin\u2019s business as a furniture designer with striking sensibilities. His job soon introduces him to the wealthy Van Buren family, led by Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce, just perfect) whose modern tastes give the two vastly different men common ground. Yet even as L\u00e1szl\u00f3 begins to find success in his career, he faces xenophobia and anti-Semitism from the white, Protestant population of Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nA<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n