As it stands, the Best Picture race is wide open, with no clear winner at the head of the pack. But one that will no doubt be vying for a number of categories is The Brutalist, a post-WWII epic that many critics are having a hard time finding the right films to compare it to. So as we wait for its prime awards season release on December 20th, A24 has unveiled the first teaser for The Brutalist.

A slow burn that rests on smart pacing, a tense score and only a mere idea of what to expect, this trailer for The Brutalist might be the most fitting way to tease the “monumental” picture.

Here is the official plot of The Brutalist: “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…” 

The Brutalist stars Adrien Brody as Tóth, marking what looks to be just the sort of return to glory that has too-long eluded him since winning Best Actor back in 2003 for The Pianist, another WWII-set film. Felicity Jones – who earned an Oscar nod for The Theory of Everything – plays his wife, while Guy Pearce is the aforementioned industrialist.

Running just over three and a half hours, The Brutalist may not seem like the film to rush out and see on opening night, but by pretty much all accounts – it holds a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and our own Chris Bumbray gave a 9/10 out of the Toronto International Film Festival – this is one of the essential films of 2024. Maybe, too, Oppenheimer helped open the gates for those who might have been skeptical of seeing a film with such a lengthy runtime on the big screen. Heck, make it a double feature with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 if that’s what gets you to the cinema.

What do you think of the teaser for The Brutalist? Will you be seeing it when it opens in December?

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Whether it be Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi for just $7,000 or Godzilla Minus One looking like a big Hollywood epic with only a $15 million budget, it’s quite the feat when filmmakers are able to stretch a dollar. This year’s Venice Film Festival darling, A24’s The Brutalist, is a 3-and-a-half-hour drama shot on 70mm and it was made for under $10 million. The Brutalist was a sensation at this year’s Venice Film Festival, garnering a 12-minute standing ovation and winning the Silver Lion, which goes to the film’s director, in this case Brady Corbet. Although originally known as an actor (notably giving a terrific performance in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games remake), Corbet has been making his mark behind the camera. He co-wrote The Brutalist with longtime partner Mona Fastvold.

According to Deadline, Corbet would explain how he made this film with such a budget at a CAA screening. He made sure to note, “We’re not reinventing the wheel. The reality is that we would have been happier and more comfortable if we had more money.” He expounded, “It came at a great personal, physical expense at times because the number of sleepless nights in the last seven years. You have to have blind faith for getting this thing which is completely malnourished across the finish line.” One of Corbet’s advantages was to use the benefits of tax credits when shooting the film in Hungary.

Corbet explained, “We were shooting in a country where things would cost what they really should cost. Hungary is not that cheap where we shot. It’s cheaper than New York City where we spent $1M in transpo on the last movie.” He added, “We want to be in control of how sand is moved around in the box. We think money is frequently misspent; a reality that all of us exist in. I don’t think I’m overstepping by saying that. But also to make this movie for this amount of money meant that it was a real sacrifice from our HODs (heads of departments).”

JoBlo’s Chris Bumbray loved the film and stressed that the 70mm should be experienced when he said in his review, “However, it also demands to be seen theatrically, as more than any movie since Oppenheimer, it’s been designed to be enjoyed as a cinematic event – and those belong on the big screen. Hopefully, audiences can see it how intended, as this is pretty close to being a masterpiece.”

The Brutalist is slated for a December 20 limited release.

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PLOT: In the aftermath of WW2, László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survived the holocaust, emigrates to America. While there, he gets a taste of the American dream from a wealthy benefactor (Guy Pearce), although success may carry a price too difficult to bear.

REVIEW: It would be fair to say there hasn’t been a movie like The Brutalist in about forty years. One-time actor Brady Corbet, who emerged as a director following The Childhood of a Leader and the underrated Vox Lux, makes movies in the vein of David Lean, with this telling a deeply personal story on an epic scale the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time. Shooting in 70mm VistaVision, The Brutalist is a three-and-a-half hour masterwork (with an intermission) that will go a long way towards establishing Corbett as one of the great modern directors. 

Indeed, The Brutalist is a full meal (I skipped all the TIFF screenings after it because I needed to digest what I’d seen for a while). It’s a whole lot of movie, but right from the opening scenes, where Adrien Brody’s Toth arrives at Ellis Island and gets a first glimpse at the Statue of Liberty as Daniel Blumberg’s masterful score blares, you know you’re in the hands of a master of his craft.

Adrien Brody has his best role since The Pianist as Toth, who’s survived the holocaust and now has to make do in an America that views him as an interloper. Going to work for his Americanized cousin (Alessandro Nivola), he gets lucky when he scores a gig designing a library at the urging of a Pennsylvania playboy (Joe Alwyn) who wants to surprise his father (Guy Pearce). When the patriarch sees the Bauhaus-style library, he has a fit but eventually sees the light and becomes Laszlo’s benefactor. 

However, the man, Harrison Lee Van Buren, is a tyrant, castigating Laszlo for employing a black man (Isaac De Bankolé) as his assistant and never letting him forget who his boss is. Brody and Pearce are electric opposite each other, with both clearly relishing sinking their teeth into truly great roles after years of toiling (at times) is smaller-scaled fare. Pearce, in particular, has never played a role like Van Buren, with him hiding his sadism behind a polished mid-Atlantic accent similar to the one used by John Huston when he played one of the screen’s great villains in Chinatown. Pearce plays him as a man of great charisma but little in the way of scruples. Yet, he’s not two-dimensional; he is also capable of great compassion, even if it comes with an asterisk. 

While Brody dominates The Brutalist as Laszlo toils for his place in post-war America, with the wounds of the holocaust driving him towards self-destruction through a horrible heroin habit, he has an amazing foil in this movie. Felicity Jones plays Laszlo’s wife, Erzsébet, who finally rejoins them (with their mute niece – played by Raffey Cassidy- in tow) after many years. While physically weak, with her wheelchair-bound, she’s portrayed as a woman of great intellectual and mental strength. She only shows up in the film’s second half (after its intermission), but she has a few of the film’s most arresting moments.

Corbet, who wrote the movie with his partner Mona Fastvold (an accomplished filmmaker in her own right), does an excellent job crafting an allegorical tale that can be applied to anyone who’s ever struggled to overcome personal trauma by creating meaningful work. Technically, this is impeccable, with cinematography by Lol Crawley that makes the most of the 70mm format and the locations filmed in Budapest, Italy and more. Truly, this is a sprawling work.

The Brutalist was the toast of the Venice Film Festival and is already taking TIFF by storm. If it comes out this year and it’s given a proper push, it would be reasonable to expect it to be a major Oscar contender in most categories, with acting nods a no-brainer for Brody, Pearce and Jones. However, it also demands to be seen theatrically, as more than any movie since Oppenheimer, it’s been designed to be enjoyed as a cinematic event – and those belong on the big screen. Hopefully, audiences can see it how intended, as this is pretty close to being a masterpiece. 

Adrien Brody

AMAZING

9

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