Film Review: The Brutalist

4 Stars

By Joseph Beyer | Feb. 15, 2025

With an elongated running time of 3 hours and 35 minutes (which doesn’t even include the mandated 15 minute theatrical intermission), director Brady Corbet’s epic drama The Brutalist is not for the faint of heart or time.

Should you decide, after 10 recent Academy Award nominations, that it’s finally time to see it on the big screen, I hope you feel it was worth it. For this critic, I left somewhat puzzled, wondering why this period piece demanded all that time and energy.

It’s not that the story of a talented architect fleeing Budapest and struggling to start a new life in America isn’t intriguing, or that the performances aren’t riveting and engaging. And it’s not that the script isn’t accomplished, interesting, or lyrical. The Brutalist is, in fact, all these things and it deserves much praise. Especially for the creativity of pulling it all off with just a $9 million budget, the cost of just one salary on most Hollywood blockbusters.

But, like being asked to read War and Peace in high school, watching the film now feels like a required viewing, as it’s driven by so much critical acclaim and controversy (more on that later).

With a screenplay by director Corbet and co-writer Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist begins in 1947 with a forced exodus as the lead character architect László Tóth is separated from his family during World War II. Tóth is forced to flee and survive and restart in America and as soon as he arrives, he desperately starts the work to bring his wife Erzsébet to join him.

Tóth’s accomplished career in the modern architecture of his time (based on his studies at The Bauhaus in Germany), is now a distant memory as he now has to take any work he can find while struggling to learn the language and customs of this strange and unfamiliar place.

A wealthy American philanthropist discovers Tóth’s talents and commissions a monumental new cultural arts center, aids in bringing Erzsébet to America, and offers patronage, support, and friendship. When the architect’s secret addiction and uncompromising vision clash with his client’s desires, it leads to a tragic outcome that unravels his life.

If this journey is a dark and metaphorical one about the immigrant experience, it certainly lands and is certainly brutal. It could also be felt as a narrative about the collision of modern and postmodern ideas. Or a grand dramatic biography of one man’s tortured and flawed life, and how small and insignificant it is.

I felt the existential crisis of something throughout—punctuated by the sometimes melodic, sometimes massive score by British musician Daniel Blumberg (his talented work is recognized in one of the many Oscar nominations).

At the center of what many are calling a masterpiece are the actors Adrien Brody as the architect Tóth, Felicity Jones as his wife Erzsébet, and Guy Pearce as the wealthy Yankee baron. All three are nominated for Oscars; two have been tainted by the revelation that AI was used by the director to “enhance” their Hungarian accents.

To me, it hardly mattered as it cannot take anything away from what are essentially raw, brave, and committed performances that you will inevitably be drawn into (even in the film’s darkest moments, and there are many).

There is an obvious artistic vision at work within The Brutalist that creates a cohesive feeling of epic importance, but days after viewing it, I was lost trying to remember many details. The plot blended together in my mind and became a kind of muddled memory. Not a bad one, just not one I was terribly anxious to return to, even as accomplished as it was.

Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, depictions of rape, drug use, and adult language. Currently in theaters, available to stream and on-demand starting Feb. 25, 2025.