In this line of work (writing about movies), hyperbole and festival hype can be a real problem. Sometimes, a film will play a festival to rapturous acclaim, only to then finally be released with a shrug. It’s not even that these sorts of films end up being bad, it’s just that it’s very hard to live up to all that hype. I try very hard to tread carefully with these sorts of things — I don’t want to oversell something. But let me tell you this: when it comes to Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” believe the hype. Corbet’s latest movie premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it was met with almost universal acclaim. It’s played other festivals since then, and again and again, viewers are blown away. Having seen the film for myself, I can attest to its strengths: this movie is the real deal, folks. In fact, it might just be the best movie of 2024.
A sprawling epic that feels cut from the same cloth as films like “The Godfather” and “There Will Be Blood,” “The Brutalist” (which was first announced back in 2020 with a completely different cast than it has now) is like the great American novel in movie form. Corbet, who also helmed “The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux,” seems to specialize in a certain type of picture: the fictional biopic. He makes movies about characters who feel like real historical figures, even though they never existed. “The Childhood of a Leader” was about the youth of a (fictional) dictator. “Vox Lux” told the life story of a (fictional) pop star. And now with “The Brutalist,” Corbet is tracking the life of a (fictional) legendary architect. Spanning decades, the film follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who survives the Holocaust and comes to America to start a new life. Through chance, or perhaps fate, László, an architect who specializes in brutalism, encounters Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a millionaire who hires László to build a vast structure on a piece of land outside of Philadelphia.
Clocking in at almost 4 hours (with a 15 minute intermission), “The Brutalist” miraculously moves at lightning speed — you’ll never once feel bogged down by that runtime. Indeed, I became so engrossed with the story Corbet created (with co-writer Mona Fastvold) I actually found myself wishing the film was even longer. I wanted more. You can get your first good look at the movie by watching the trailer above.
The Brutalist is one of 2024’s best films
This is a pretty abstract trailer — more of a teaser than a full-blown 3-plus-minute trailer. If you’re looking for a sense of story, you won’t find that here. What you will find is a glimpse at the incredible cinematography courtesy of Lol Crawley (shot in VistaVision) as well as a sense of Daniel Blumberg’s propulsive, stunning score. The trailer also showcases one of the most memorable moments of the film: an opening sequence in which László first arrives in America and we see the Statue of Liberty upside down. Another thing this trailer does: it gives one a sense of how huge the movie is. It’s a sprawling film full of massive images, which is all the more impressive when you know that Corbet shot this thing for about $6–10 million. That’s chump change compared to most Hollywood productions, but with that amount of money, Corbet and his team were able to create something immense in scope and scale.
And it was no easy feat. Corbet spent years working on this movie. As he told THR, “Most filmmakers I know in America — they live in one-bedroom apartments until they die. It’s not a very lucrative medium. You work on something for years. You don’t get paid much, or if you do, it’s not enough money to live on for four to seven years unil you’re able to get your next film off the ground … We are living during a very disturbing moment in time where we are expected to do more for a lot less. We have to fight to be able to do our jobs. I’ve had enough of it. I’m tired, you know? I should be able to do my job in peace … This film is very personal in the sense that it’s about how many obstacles are put in my path and my wife’s path just to bring our projects to life. This movie should not have taken seven years to get made. But it did — and my cortisol levels are still through the roof.”
“The Brutalist” stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, with Isaach De Bankolé and Alessandro Nivola. Look for it in select theaters on December 20, 2024.
Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost…
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