Saturday, January 11, 2025

The Brutalist

Saturday afternoon, Tom, Sharon and I saw the The Brutalist at the Regal Delta Shores & IMAX. The movie fits into our annual journey to see all of the films that might be nominated for an Oscar. GoldDerby currently has The Brutalist as the favorite to win the Best Picture Oscar. It won three awards at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, including: Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Actor; Best Director; and, Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. It was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the American Film Institute.

The Brutalist is a period drama film directed and produced by Brady Corbet. Corbert co-wrote the script with Mona Fastvold.

It stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect. The character of László Tóth was inspired by several real-life architects and designers, including Paul Rudolph, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy, and Marcel Breuer. The cast also features Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola.

The Brutalist follows the Hungarian architect [Brody] who escapes the horrors of World War II and immigrates to the United States. He struggles to achieve the American Dream. The architect becomes entangled with a wealthy industrialist [Pearce]. This leads to a complex and morally ambiguous journey that explores themes of ambition, power, and the lasting impact of trauma.

Tom's thoughts about The Brutalist:
  1. brutal;
  2. cinematic;
  3. why?;
  4. thank God for the intermission;
  5. could have spent time better reorganizing my sock drawer; and,
  6. Brody likely Oscar winner and probably deserved but still 5 hours of your life you’ll wish another time you still had.
The movie runs about 3 hours and 45 minutes with a 15 minute intermission. I am frankly surprised that the studio would let a director not named Scorsese create a film this long. I am not sure how it is going to attract a large enough audience to make any money.

We saw the film in an IMAX theater. The cinematography is fantastic! Additionally, as Tom noted Brody performance is very good.

When the movie was over, Sharon turned to me and said "I am sorry, that was not good, I didn't like it." I enjoyed the movie more than Sharon or Tom did. In spite of the cinematography and Brody's performance, I don't recommend it unless you are trying to fill out your Oscar Best Picture dance card.

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