To begin, here's a short piece on The Brutalist.
Wednesday’s movie at the Regal UA Kaufman 14-Plex was The Brutalist (2024, dir. Brady Corbet) starring Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian architect who has reached the United States after World War II. He left his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) behind, thinking they had died at the hands of the Nazis.
Interlocutor: And how did you find The Brutalist, Mr. Jerry?
Jerry: It was brutal, and yes, I'll be here all week.
I stuck with the movie past the halfway mark/intermission, right up to the scene where it jumped the shark. No spoilers, but the action was so implausible and out of character that I walked out. After a few minutes and a chance to reconsider I went back, only to find that there was a new implausible scene, with Tóth berating Gordon (Isaach De Bankolé), his oldest friend in America, someone who’d stuck with him through good times and bad, for no good reason. There was about 15 minutes left, but I’d had enough. You can let me know what I missed in the comments.
There some good things in "The Brutalist," though I can’t remember what they were, but they were outweighed by the problems: slow, almost languorous, pace; multiple implausibilities and plot holes; headache-inducing editing, and peculiar music choices. One that bothered me was a scene in a Black club where the musicians are playing something like free jazz, which as far as I know wasn’t widely heard until the late 1950s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_jazz).
If I had to offer an opinion on why Adrien Brody received a Golden Globe and is nominated for an Oscar, I’d guess it’s because he maintains a Hungarian accent for more than three hours, he has a scene where he loses his temper and throws things, because Tóth has a heroin habit, and it’s a Serious Movie about a creative person who's misunderstood. The heroin is particularly confusing because it doesn’t affect his work or his appearance, it shows up and then disappears, and he keeps it a secret from everyone except Gordon for decades.
As always, your experience will vary and I’ll be interested to hear what you thought.
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