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.

Order of events of movie:

“Oh sick wow, beautiful, struggles, woah thats awesome, yo he didnt deserve that, oh good for them, yo christopher nolan should shoot a scene here, WHAT THE FUCK, oh ok, WOAH, oh fire”

Every individual part of this movie is perfect! Acting, sound, etc.

good

It says boring.

Adrien Brody - amazing acting; didn't like the way the story was told, and too long (3-1/2+ hours).