The Brutalist review: An Oscar-worthy epic in length, weight and ambition

Brady Corbet's epic drama is rich with history and speaks volumes about America and its uneasy relationship with immigrants.

Adrien Brody and Alessandro Nivola in The Brutalist, hugging while stood next to a train

Universal Pictures

★★★★★

The Brutalist is in cinemas on Friday 24 January. Add it to your watchlist.

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As an upside-down Statue of Liberty drifts into view at the outset, it’s clear that The Brutalist has no intention of offering a straight, flag-waving take on the American Dream.

Actor turned writer/director Brady Corbet impressed with his first two films The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, but his third feature – once again co-written with his partner, the Norwegian-born helmer of The World to Come, Mona Fastvold – takes his filmmaking to another level.

This Golden Globe-winning effort tells the fictional story of celebrated architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jew who has been imprisoned in a concentration camp and arrives in America following World War II, leaving his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and their niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) behind.

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He is initially taken in by his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who owns a furniture store, but is let go following an accusation by Attila’s gentile wife, Audrey (Emma Laird). László is commissioned to redesign the library of Guy Pearce’s industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr by his son, Harry (Joe Alwyn), who hopes it will be a wonderful surprise.

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist, writing in a notebook while sat in a field, with a tree and a bike behind him

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist. Universal Pictures

Instead, Harrison reacts furiously to what he perceives as an unforgivable intrusion, but eventually becomes enamoured with László’s work, fuelled by newfound knowledge of his reputation. With the Van Buren library becoming the talk of high society, Harrison commissions László to work on an ambitious cultural centre in memory of his late mother. The building’s construction is fraught with problems, taking its toll on both men, while later László is reunited with Erzsébet and Zsófia.

Shot in the defunct widescreen format VistaVision, giving it an appropriately aged aesthetic, and incorporating a 15-minute intermission, The Brutalist is a film rich with history, which speaks volumes about America and its uneasy relationship with immigrants – with those that have built and shaped it, but who will not ever be considered truly American.

Felicity Jones plays Erzsébet Tóth in The Brutalist

Felicity Jones plays Erzsébet Tóth in The Brutalist. A24

Through the character of László, it highlights the indignities and precariousness of the immigrant experience – the reliance on the charity of others and the suspicion that their presence arouses. The Brutalist explores the fundamental problems of philanthropy and the difficult relationship between artist and patron, the jealousies, the dependence, the compromises. It peels back the veneer of flattery and generosity to reveal bitterness and disgust. László is despised for not being humble or grateful enough; there is a sense he must be put back in his place.

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Brody movingly captures the complex psychology of a man who, despite knowing his own worth, cannot help but absorb the hatred of others, and the anguish of someone who, for all his pride, talent and work ethic, cannot stand successfully on his own two feet. Pearce is phenomenal, face tight with tension, as a man similarly consumed by this toxic relationship, who has shown us who he really is with his angry outburst early on. Van Buren offers up the poison chalice of his patronage to burnish his own standing, yet is unable to handle his close proximity to genius, especially in a man he feels to be unworthy of such talent.

Guy Pearce plays Harrison Lee Van Buren in The Brutalist

Guy Pearce plays Harrison Lee Van Buren in The Brutalist A24

As much as anything, it is also a film about art, and architecture specifically, about the gift and burden of true creativity, and how such constructions reflect who we are as individuals and societies at any given time.

The building in question is a tribute to a beloved relative, incorporates the diverse needs of a community, and the whims of its financier, but inevitably becomes something that says more about the architect himself.

Seven years in the making, The Brutalist is epic in its length, weight and ambition, like a modern-day Orson Welles picture, while it also bears comparison to contemporary masterworks like There Will Be Blood.

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In a period of great turmoil for US politics, which has exposed the cracks in the fragile relationship between left and right, it’s a timely examination of how modern America came into existence, and the resentments that lurk beneath its surface.

Authors

Emma Simmonds

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