Cinema builds to new heights in “The Brutalist”

Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” is a towering new American Epic that looks at the intersection of art, compromise, ego and greed.  Over the course of three and a half hours we watch a relationship between a creative and a financier grow, flourish and crumble in the name of a greater purpose.  Whether that purpose is driven by religion, family, wealth or legacy may vary viewer-to-viewer, but Corbet’s film makes us ask if great things can stand with such an imperfect foundation.

In the wave of immigrants who fled Europe after World War II is a celebrated Jewish architect, László Tóth (Adrien Brody).  Separated from his family, he comes to America where he is forced into second-class status until he meets the wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who takes a liking to László’s lost work.  Van Buren hires him for an ambitious project: a community center consisting of a library, theater, gym and church.  It’s to be done in a single structure that honors his late mother, without any concern for expenses.

László agrees, and soon enough the men are collaborating in an entertaining back-and-forth.  Neither man can exist without the other.  Van Buren, for all his money, lacks the creativity he knows László has.  László cannot build without someone to pay the bills, and is more than happy to have Van Buren create an even higher artistic bar for him to clear.  Corbet and co-screenwriter Mona Fastvold mine this relationship through direct dialogue and subtle similarities, instilling in both men a sense of certainty that hides their insecurities.

Brody and Pearce provide each man with tremendous performances.  Brody channels the same tortured brilliance that earned him an Academy Award for “The Pianist,” and watching him here is to see a Holocaust survivor try to find meaning in an America that merely tolerates him.  Pearce plays Van Buren with a dangerous charisma that makes him instantly hateable, but too mesmerizing to tune out.

László’s wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and his niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) make their way to America in the film’s second half, and their presence breaks up the compromising pattern both men have fallen into.  Jones plays the wheelchair-bound Erzsébet with a calculating disapproval of everyone intruding upon her family’s interests, creating a trifecta that demands one member be pushed out.  Zsófia, left mute from the war, watches helplessly, while Van Buren’s son Harry (Joe Alwyn) keeps her in sight, lingering like an animal ready to pounce its prey.  Characters manipulate one another, sometimes over years, all while the ambitious construction grows in the background, demanding to be seen through until the end. 

The film itself feels like it was conjured up out of the architect’s mind; This is a massive undertaking that never once feels its 225-minute runtime, thanks to a hypnotic score by Daniel Blumberg, a built-in intermission (thank God movies are still allowed to have those), and a unique visual style that mixes the old with the new.  Corbet and cinematographer Lol Crawley use VistaVision filmstock to make the washed out colors feel as tangible as concrete, while allowing the camera to move dizzyingly at times to create a sense of unease.  In existing without compromise, Corbet’s film is able to succeed where his characters could not.

The long runtime will appear as a high barrier of entry for people to enjoy.  But those who meet the film where it stands will experience a story they won’t soon forget.  What it all amounts to in the end can be debated (as Corbet boldly dares us to with the film’s epilogue), but one cannot deny that they will have seen a true vision.  For me, I walked away more aware than ever of the dangerous naivete behind two optimistic words: “American Dream.”

“The Brutalist” opened in St. Louis theaters Thursday, January 9, 2025.