Summary
A monumental achievement that, like the titular style, may initially appear daunting or unapproachable but rewards every moment you spend with it.
Don’t bother searching for László Tóth. Like Lydia Tár before him, he’s a figure of considerable renown who exists solely within the bounds of an intense piece of fiction. Yet THE BRUTALIST, directed by Brady Corbet and co-written with Mona Fastvold, is firmly anchored in the concrete realities of a century’s worth of history, drawing inspiration from real-world architects and designers.
Corbet deliberately disorients the audience from the outset with an intense sequence of jarring shots, reminiscent of the climactic scene in The Childhood of a Leader (2015). These striking visuals introduce Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody) as he arrives at Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty looming above the immigrants.
Tóth’s version of the “American Dream” follows a familiar path. Labelled onscreen as ‘The Enigma of Arrival’, it sees architect Tóth move to Philadelphia to stay with his cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola), and help with his furniture business. Unable to bring his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), to America right away, Tóth faces mixed fortunes. Coupled by a descent into heroin addiction, he’s left in charity housing and working construction jobs. At least until he catches the attention of Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a wealthy and volatile industrialist.
Van Buren commissions Tóth to build a multi-function community centre near his estate. The second act of the film, “The Hard Core of Beauty” traces the construction project and the parallel unravelling of the architect. Following the arrival of his now wheelchair-bound wife and mute niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), Tóth increasingly feels the glares of his outsider status as a foreigner in a rich white world.
Like the building Tóth has designed, THE BRUTALIST is ambitious in both size and shape. At 215 minutes, Corbet’s film mirrors the titular design movement: like a massive concrete structure, it may initially appear daunting, indulgent, or even unapproachable. Yet by presenting its characters in their rawest forms, the film’s deliberate pacing invites the audience to invest time and uncover the understated elegance within. Make no mistake—THE BRUTALIST is beautiful and transfixing. Over three and a half hours in Tóth’s world pass in the blink of an eye.
By shooting on VistaVision film and using cameras from the format’s heyday—a process Paramount pioneered but abandoned after just seven years in the 1950s and 1960s—Corbet crafts his film with the very materials of the era it depicts. The result is a series of jaw-droppingly beautiful moments, captured in the characteristic fine-grain of the format. Even the 15-minute intermission is a deliberate nod to tradition, serving not just as a bladder break but as a pivotal thematic shift.
Likewise, the stellar cast—completely reassembled between the film’s 2020 announcement and final form—feel less like performers and more like documentary subjects. It’s a running joke that Brody has spent much of his career in the Second World War (The Thin Red Line, The Pianist), but here you would believe it. Brody carries the weight of his character’s trauma and grief in every contorted expression, a survivor in every sense of the word.
In Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote that legacy is planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. Tóth actively refutes this, literally constructing a monument to past traumas and claiming ownership of his own legacy. (In a playful nod, the credits roll to La Bionda’s 1970s disco hit “One for You, One for Me,” driving the point home). As the film’s closing moments remind us, “No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.” THE BRUTALIST is one hell of a destination.
2024 | USA, Hungary, UK | DIRECTOR: Brady Corbet | WRITERS: Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold | CAST: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures (Australia), A24 (USA) | RUNNING TIME: 215 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 23 January 2025 (Australia), 20 December 2024 (USA)
