The Brutalist | Quick Review
“It is the destination, not the journey”
The headline for The Brutalist is the film’s 3-hour 35-minute runtime [mercifully with a 15-minute intermission]. There’s a lot in the title, the story of a brutalist architect and the brutal length of the movie combine to make one of the most compelling movies of this Oscar season.
The film received ten award nominations at the 97th Academy Awards, and the hype is justified in this subtle and thought-provoking film. Director Brady Corbet [who shockingly is only 36 years old) defended the length comparing it to ‘criticising a book that has 700 pages’.
This American epic follows Hungarian immigrant László Tóth’s journey through the 20th century. Adrien Brody plays Tóth and is one of the front-runners for the Best Actor Oscar; he is awash in a sea of stealthy British actors. Of the main players, he is the only American.
Tóth begins his journey with nothing and I was impressed that Corbet chose to subvert the usual story arc of an immigrant coming to America with nothing and rising to the very top – instead, the film mainly follows the story of a single bloated project.
This is not Architectural Scarface
Tóth spends the majority of the film living with a rich family led by patriarch Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) in a relationship that slowly unravels. The lesson, like Saltburn, is that if you’re desperate and a rich family wants to take you in, you will likely witness horrifying family dynamics and kinky sex.
Even though The Brutalist was long, it was consistently gripping. I didn’t feel that there were any wasted scenes, no superfluous B-plots or tacked-on love story. Even in the third act after we meet Lazlo’s weird Italian marble salesman friend; it leads to a scene with monumental significance to the plot.
However, it would have been improved with more attention to a rushed ending which left the fate of multiple characters unresolved. For a film with a deliberate pace and long running time, the ending was unsatisfactory with more questions than answers. The epilogue was worse with the movie recapped with a short speech from a previously unseen character.
Confusingly, the actress who previously played the character is suddenly in the audience as her daughter. This unexplained choice also felt sloppy.
In this era it’s rare to see a film with such abundant smoking, it’s rare to see Lazlo without a fag dangling out his mouth while he speaks. Adrien Brody’s a top 5 movie smoker of his era and The Brutalist features some of the best movie smoking of the 2020s.
Overall, The Brutalist was an enjoyable film and worthy of the time commitment. The scenery, acting and storyline were gripping throughout combined with some unexpected comedic moments Corbet’s film is one of the standouts of the 2025 Oscar season.
8 cigarettes out of 10.
