The Brutalist ★★★★

Released: 24th January 2025

Director: Brady Corbet

Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Isaach de Bankolé

From the very opening of Brady Corbet’s 215-minute monolithic post-war drama, a certain majesty burns through the celluloid. Shot utilising the alchemical method of Vista Vision, Corbet’s attention to detail is truly astonishing. This was already a prominent and integral element to his directorial sensibilities, referenced in his outstanding debut The Childhood of a Leader and the all-consuming Vox Lux. The Brutalist accounts for many individuals over its roughly 40-year span, but the narrative is filtered through the prism of Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor, László Tóth, played phenomenally by Adrien Brody. Corbet tracks Tóth’s corporeal and spiritual migration to America with such scintillating honesty that it’s almost impossible to totally capture the formal grandeur that is on display on an initial viewing.

Opening with a sonically overwhelming booming brass score, paired with earth-shattering composition and photography by Lol Crawley, Tóth arrives solo in New York City with no sense of equilibrium. Here, he makes his way down to Pennsylvania to visit his cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who gives him the opportunity to work in his Philadelphian furniture store. Oppression and vitriol follow Tóth like an endless curse, confronting him at every hurdle. Attila, who has now anglicised his own name and become Catholic, is married to an American Catholic woman who is entirely disapproving, yet cosmically allured by Tóth’s quiet genius.

Most individuals that we meet along the way are, in fact, captivated by the way Tóth carries himself. Corbet, purposely, only briefly touches on fragments of László’s experience during the Holocaust, but the marks are permanent. Corbet and his co-writer, Mona Fastvold, etch this into Brody’s Tóth with striking empathy and a complete understanding of both the traumas of war and in the violence of living. Attila and Tóth are approached by Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn), the son of American tycoon Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who wants to surprise his father, who is away on business, by reconstructing his library. It’s almost indescribable how beautiful and majestic the scenes that transpire in this curation actually are. From formal composition to Dávid Jancsó’s striking editing, The Brutalist carries this audiovisual harmony that is of the highest grandeur. Initially, Harrison despises the work of Tóth, racistly commanding him and his crew to never return to his palatial estate, yet in time discovers the genius of Tóth’s architectural sensibilities. Harrison then offers Tóth the chance to build a monolith, which is to be dedicated to his recently deceased mother, acting as a community centre for the local town. This, alongside the promise of fast tracking his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) gives Tóth a fabricated inkling of the American Dream.

The comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America are all there in principle, but Corbet’s work is so impressively singular that it is hard to focus on anything other than the triumphs. However, after the enchantment of its Overture, First Act and gorgeous Intermission card, The Brutalist shifts in tone, with the introduction of Felicity Jones and Raffey Cassidy. Whilst this tonal shift isn’t a disservice necessarily to the architecture of the film’s narrative, it does feel like some kind of filmic whiplash in comparison to the first two hours.

Ultimately, when it comes to The Brutalist, there is an ingenious, masterful piece of work on display. Corbet’s treatise on the disillusionment of the American Dream and American ideologies, full stop, tied in with an entirely empathic character study of an artist, evolves into a deeply complex and emotionally draining piece of work. A monumental culmination of artistry and performance, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist will only get better with subsequent viewings.