The Brutalist

8.0 - This is a really hard one for me to rate, even after sitting with it for over 48 hours.

It’s undeniably a technical masterpiece. It’s massive in story, scale, & performance. But I’m not sure it completely justifies itself and it’s 3.5 hour run time.

Adrien Brody gives an incredible, moving performance. His character is asked to give & give, sacrifice & sacrifice, risk & risk, for an American dream that is never truly possible, & can never be fully realized. Moving from one form of prison to another as he has to constantly turn to & survive every kind of abuse. Beyond Brody’s performance, I felt Guy Pearce’s was also especially powerful (& difficult to stomach). A fantastic representation of the entire American capitalist system.

The film itself is big & beautiful, & also cold & rough - brutalist if you will. The AI controversy is a complete nothing to me in reading how it was used.

But again, I don’t know if it is justified in its length. The epilogue was especially unnecessary, and I think its story additions could have been weaved in much more subtly, & as a result, more powerfully. I also think the end of Act Two would have hit much better if it was left with its open-ended (but still clear) resolution. Overall, this is a fantastic work that just doesn’t all mesh for me. There is a starkness between acts, & again before the epilogue, that detracts from any deep emotion. And while I absolutely under the love for this from awards organizations, I don’t automatically place it as a best picture favorite I was expecting when I entered my theater. I’m not sure I’ll ever find myself watching it again, but I am very curious how it might affect me on a second experience.

If I had a nickel for every time Adrien Brody was in a movie during or after the events of WW2, while his character is very artistic, I’d have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

One of the best opening sequences I’ve seen

Tough..

3.5/5

What a film. A little slow in the beginning, but then the plot took off. Other than that is just positive things to say. The story really was interesting and László was such an interesting character. Brody deserved that Best Actor-win. Would recommend. 9.0/10.