Mark Kermode reviews The Brutalist - Kermode and Mayo's Take

[@greendress23]

I've been listening to Mark's film reviews for years now, and value his views. I love Simon's total lack of ego. It's such a skill.

[@stephencurtin9038]

Would love to see this again in a couple of years..stays with you. One of those films that you take something slightly different each time. There will be blood in epicness

[@lexis4490]

For the longest, I thought this was about a real person. Very well developed story and characters.

[@Gringoclasico]

The first half had me sitting in the intermission thinking “oh my god, is this Citizen Kane? Is this gonna be one of the best things I’ve ever seen?” I think the second half doesn’t live up to that expectation, but it has sat with me since. The epilogue in particular is a really interesting contextualization of everything that came before and I think has some very pertinent things to say about Zionism, and to whom the memory of the holocaust actually belongs. Fantastic stuff.

[@wazi13]

I feel like the second half doesn't deliver by design.

[@LoveguruAC]

That's if what the niece is saying is true. László is old and can't speak for himself anymore. The director also implied this himself in an interview.

[@Gringoclasico]

@ that’s what I’m saying - you can’t believe the niece because she has her own agenda, but by building everything in America laszlo has said his piece, even if he’s too frail to say it out loud.

[@myvideosareallmyown]

I agree. First half, is amazing, and genuinely extraordinary. The second-half after the Intermission, is messy, and less interesting, and the ending is messy. It really felt like a film made by two people, who weren't on speaking-terms. A shame, and as such, I can't say it deserves to win many awards. The sex scenes are also prurient and unnecessary, and would not harm the narrative one iota, if excised. It's not that I'm prudish - I'm not - but they stick out badly, and do the narrative no favours.

[@emmanuelsalazar9424]

Brilliant film. By a mile, my favourite of last year.

[@nathan7752]

Corbet was heartbreaking in Mysterious Skin too!

[@selinakyle2368]

That movie hit me like a freight train

[@billhicks8]

Incredible film

[@halsinden]

"that incredibly bleak tale... of hard scrabble" well, we had the queen's gambit. time to explore the rest of the tabletops.

[@IrnBruNYC]

I can’t think of any other movie of the last … 20 years…that has so thoroughly earned its extended running time. This is a miracle and a masterpiece.

[@ianrobinson4200]

I agree, I watched it yesterday and found the running time a breeze. Didn't feel lengthy at all, it was actually shorter than I thought it was going to be because I thought the intermission was additional to the printed running time, but it seems to be included in it

[@joshzarr]

Agreed, I left the movie in silence on the way home tonight, then warmed up a meal and ate it in silence, then just sat on my couch in silence for a bit. Very few movies have affected me this deeply.

[@kefinkamed]

I am very excited about this one. From everything I have seen so far, Adrien Brody is an exceptional actor who has yet to put a foot wrong.

[@owenwilcox]

Great in The Village but I don't think you'd get away with that now!

[@mattd1659]

That one where he shags the alien is a bit debatable, but otherwise your point stands

[@ACDCdude89]

I'm with Simon on this one. I was a little disappointed by the end. I thought the first half was amazing. Especially that opening scene when he comes out of the boat and the score booms to life. But I feel like the ending was out of nowhere and didn't really feel like there needed to be an epilogue

[@suzannehydes8843]

Agreed. I've just gotten home from the cinema, having decided to ride out Storm Eowyn at my local independent cinema for four hours. I felt the ending was definitely anticlimatic, unresolved and quite odd (besides the general feeling that I need a therapy session...)

[@ACDCdude89]

@ definitely agree. It’s strange that in a 3.5hr movie that the ending feels rushed or unfinished. Pretty disappointing because I was looking forward to it so much but I’m still happy it exists and that there is so much buzz around it

[@nicholasnicou2598]

It was nice to hear Leone's final masterwork 'Once Upon a Time in America' mentioned here, but of course that one is now considered one of the greatest movies ever made.

[@zvimur]

Question is: Is there any atmosphere connection between the Postwar (WW2) Bfrutalist and the Prohibition OUTIA?

[@stevejobs5533]

Shite film, my two cents

[@kanichiwoh]

Brody and Pearce were brilliant. I wasn't sold on Felicity Jones, I thought she felt miscast in this role.

[@RollrightKnights]

Me too, I felt she just didn't have the gravitas for that role

[@angklungeds]

The Pianist*! Was thinking about Brody in 1993 in colonial NZ for a second there lol

[@ChrisSmith-dv8ww]

The Pianist NOT THE PIANO!

[@GetterRay]

I call it "that movie directed by the child rapist that hollywood gave a standing ovation to the director for"

[@jimshelley8831]

I saw it in New Zealand and it was called the piano.

[@mbrandon11]

@@ChrisSmith-dv8ww THANKYOU HAHAHA!!! Yes!!!

[@deathexempt]

Name change overseas

[@theelliottline3637]

@@deathexempt The Piano 1993 Holly Hunter, The Pianist 2002 Adrien Brody

[@James-jt9nb]

The actions of guy Pearce towards the end really took me by surprise. That would be my one gripe cause it took me out for a sec. But other than that I loved it.

[@watertower1]

Yea really horrific

[@FilmKiln]

Very much came out of nowhere but his sons reaction at the end of the film seems to imply a history

[@Rodimus184]

I mean, it's good but it's no Thunderbirds 04...

[@dumbkoffcrow974]

I'm with Mr Mayo. I watched this movie on opening weekend in 70mm. I thought it was a well crafted film, a bit long, but it didnt exactly grab me like any of the other high rated movies I watched this past year. I thought Adrian Brody's performance was good, but Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce were amazing, playing two people who polarized the Laslo character into being what he could be. There's a lot of ideas here and maybe repeat viewings will help me digest some of them better.

[@jedionboard1233]

The soundtrack music is just amazing. ( and a touch weird ).

[@TheeTonyClayton]

I felt the film was worthy of it’s runtime. Brutalist art is known for its definitive penchant of being “ugly” or “violent.” I felt that the run time reflects that idea. I also feel that the story is primarily timely, in the sense that, it’s about an immigrant chasing the “American Dream”, but is constantly being blocked or thrown hurdles by natural citizens or immigrants that have already made it to their ideal. It’s timely and a great look at America and its test to achieve the “dream.”

[@Kausan1]

With Simon on this one

[@ryanoliveira8851]

Wonderful review as always mark!

[@michaelseibold9977]

I refer to it as Citizen Kane meets Mies van de Rohe . I liked the film a lot. Many themes. My problem, and maybe it was our theater, is the score was so loud I had to put my fingers in my ears.

[@ziggy8253]

Use of AI doesn’t concern you…now, but it will in the future, and by then it’ll be too late.

[@Laura-fr2wx]

Waiting to see it this weekend but a bit of a shame that Kermode doesn't seem interested in the use of AI in this film. From what I understand the generated artwork is what people have most issue with and for very legitimate reasons as its taking work away from artists.

[@RollrightKnights]

Loved it, thought it was stunning. I did feel though that Felicity Jones was miscast, she just didn't convince me.

[@justanothersciencenerd6907]

Would jump to see this in 70mm. There is a theatre about 20 minutes from me (the last remaining theatre in my county capable of showing 70mm films) but they're not playing it. My son and I saw Oppenheimer in 70mm there, which we very much enjoyed.

[@tbastdgagitw]

I was gonna say The Fountainhead

[@blakemeads9225]

It’s basically The Fountainhead if it wasn’t written by a sociopath.

[@andrewrussell2978]

Welcome to 4 years of hell....that ending note made me chuckle.

[@SZUKI80]

It was a nice touch to put a son of a Hungarian jew emigrant as a lead actor

[@Tyler12905]

i didnt feel the runtime once personally and i have adhd lmao

[@KevinJDildonik]

Brutalist admitted to using AI. They claim they only used it to fix Hungarian dialog and for the "intentionally bad" designs in the finale. But in a movie literally about craftsmanship. Why.

[@Sowindiee10]

@@KevinJDildonik so respeecher has been used multiple times now in films, and it’s essentially like auto-tune (routine practice in music and film, ex. wicked) but for language. They applied it to some very tricky vowels in one scene that is a voice over letter, and if not pronounced in native fluency (not possibly to actually achieve physically even with immense prep) it’s not as effective of a scene for Hungarian viewers. So this wasn’t for anyone but Hungarians. The Editor himself is a Hungarian and fed his own dialect into the software. The editor also said respeecher just made something that was going to happen anyways substantially faster. So, not generative, not stealing anyone’s jobs, not in essence any different from auto-tune. Just a tool making workflow a bit faster, and used sparingly. As for the draft renderings, that was done with the architectural consultant, and in architecture AI is routine in draft workflows nowadays. So again, no one lost a job and actual it’s authentic to (modern) architectural workflows and was even in consult with an architect. Here it’s being used as a tool very carefully, it is not replacing jobs🤷‍♀️ it’s also notable that Emilia Perez used both Respeecher and auto-tune throughout the movie, and it’s a Spanish musical nominated for 13 Oscars so I dunno. Not a big deal.

[@Lady_in_the_Radiator]

It may seem like an overreaction, but this is the reason I decided not to see it for now. I saw a movie last week where they had used de-ageing effects in a few scenes and I suddenly realised how tired I am of this kind of technology. I just want to see people's faces. Hear their voices. Please, get all this digital shit away from actors' performances.

[@malcolmjcullen]

You have to think of AI as a tool for artists to use, rather than as a replacement or alternative to artists.

[@rossdurling6208]

Artists in 2025 use the tools at their disposal

[@domatron7917]

The director has come out saying they didn’t use AI for the architectural designs

[@geoafe66]

Great movie. Go see it.

[@dimitrigerman8376]

Where my Brutalist Boys at

[@halcyondaystunes]

Down voting you

[@therestaurantguru1961]

Excellent film of 2 halves, ours had an intermission 🤣😂

[@arlapiacentini7101]

I get this most likely was recorded prior to the news of the level of ai that was used to finish the ending ( not seen it, apparently it’s an artful mosaic of sorts ) and given the films level of authenticity does that not detract and destroy the overall message/point of the film?

[@30yearsoldiam1]

That ai story was inconsequential and if you watch this review mark mentions it. Ai is a useful tool in cinema so it's not at all controversial

[@Kevon420]

The use of AI (which is becoming a silly blanket term) is extremely minimal, the epilogue takes place in the 1980s and in that it uses some AI generated stuff for some videos that are playing on a TV screen, if I’m recalling correctly. While watching the movie it isn’t a big obvious thing, I think the creators of the film should have simply abstained from doing it at all because of the scrutiny and the optics of it, you may as well not create any problems for yourself.

[@TheTurophile]

indeed it is quite an irony. I really loved the film so I was heartbroken to learn that AI was used not only to render architectural pieces for the end sequence, but AI voice adjustment was used to alter Brody's and Jones's accents.

[@michaelandrews117]

I find it quite funny that a film about artistic expression and genius of the individual auteur, uses tools that essentially steal from the individual to repurpose into a homunculus of parts that appear new but are just used to cut corners

[@arlapiacentini7101]

@ I had read about the ai voice and while I disagree with it, I was prepared to let it go on the basis they tired to adr it and someone got paid. The end has no justification from what I hear.

[@sonicgoo1121]

All this talk of architecture makes me wonder how it compares to Megalopolis.

[@owenwilcox]

Check out VFX artists react video on here to see their reactions to MegaFlopolis. 😂

[@NateGH36O]

Compare literally anything else to Megalopolis and you’ll have a wide gap by a mile in terms of quality

[@MovieJustin]

Bingo

[@fredlewis6527]

3.5 hours?! There better be some orcs in it

[@brianhotaling5849]

A bit of The Fountainhead

[@ypaisley]

I think the film may be an allegory for filmmaking itself. An autobiography of sorts, although admittedly, I don’t know anything about the writers. Creating a beautiful structure that you wish to imbue with divine light, but which the financial backers wish to restrain and diminish for a budget’s sake. Throwing your own money in, which you can ill-afford, in a desperate attempt to preserve your vision. (Just look at Coppola self-funding his movie precisely to avoid that fate!)

[@EICKonaHIKE]

This movie was a masterpiece to me and left me literally breathless. I was swept away into another life.

[@HeidiLandRover]

They should've got Roger Corman to make it.

[@robjack2507]

Is it just me that sees the similarities to Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead!....

[@Argeaux2]

There are very few films that wouldn’t be improved with a shorter run time.

[@mirellatorrisi1397]

Should have just been a lavish doco about the Bauhaus and its legacy instead. It’s deceitful. A friend turned to me completely misled asking me why they hadn’t heard of this architect and I had to explain. Also in the opening shots there was a NY skyline with a building that may have been built by 1950, but I doubt it. It undermined it very early. Loved Guy Pearce though.

[@jackolantern_8239]

why not criticise the use of AI? AI tech is anti artist and involves theft and replication of others work. So you should have more of a stance on it than just nah I'm not interested

[@nevem5010]

❤

[@kurtrussellfanclub]

I don’t think we can sit by and not have an opinion on its use of AI while praising it for a low budget. It sounds like a wonderful film and well-written and I would love to see it without needing to steal from other creators

[@S3raphima]

It felt like the movie was begging for you to take it extremely seriously all of the time and reminding you how important it is - requiring a news reel so the audience could understand what heroin is. The worst type of kitsch.

[@Tom-qo4mz]

interesting all the humour landed for most of my screening with what sounded like the entire (sold out) audience laughing together at the more-than- several points the script (and performances) prompted it

[@Tchelitchew.]

The second half of this movie was...ludicrous. Everyone stopped behaving like real humans. I didn't think Felicity Jones was very good at all. She certainly didn't nail the accent (maybe they didn't give her the AI enhancements granted to Brody)? The characters felt like gassy archetypes. Very Megalopolis-coded. Not to mention the AI-generated designs for Laszlo's buildings were hideous.

[@justagame101]

Omg thank God someone isn't comparing it to Citizen Kane🙄 Incoherent mess. The first half showed some promise, but I don't think it knew what it wanted to say. I feel the score gave it way more of an awe than it deserved, massive let down.

[@MrEwragg]

I thought it was fine. It is long and it feels long. It doesn’t really particularly feel like it is about anything either. Maybe that’s the point. It’s brutalism in film but that made it unengaging (especially in the second half) There are lots of things you could say the film is about but I don’t think it really nailed any of them. If you say it’s about the creation of art then it has elements but also o never got the sense of the building being a work of art that was deeply personal. Ultimately it’s most significant feature complete goes against the main characters own ideology (and doesn’t make any sense) If it’s about the American dream, I’m not even sure if it is against that. Yes he has struggles but he also had opportunities to him and not just 1 but alternative options Maybe it’s about antisemitism and there are a few comments but I’d argue the peripheral racism and sexism is stronger. It looks and sounds amazing but I’m surprised it’s anywhere near a best picture win

[@mdavid200ify]

My partner and I watched this yesterday. She liked it a bit more than I but were both hugely disappointed with it. Overlong, poorly paced, a mess of incomplete ideas, gratuitous nudity of females which seemed entirely unnecessary. Oh, and what was with the pseudo 80's disco outro music which was completely at odds with the entire mood of the film? - that reminded me of a theatre production which ends with a song and dance routine to try to convince the audience it had a good time. Rarely have I been so out of sync with a Kermode assessment of a film.

[@justagame101]

Totally agree. I cannot fathom the overwhelmingly positive reviews it got. The second half is an incoherent mess. And the epilogue is unnecessary. I hope this thing of fake biopics doesn't become a common form of cinema off the back of this. People are actually comparing to Citizen Kane 🙄

[@deerheart87]

The Pianist .

[@Rachciah]

It's very disheartening to hear a professional reviewer say out loud he doesn't care about the use of AI in the industry and especially so in such an artisan a movie that is specifically about craftsmanship And the movie itself in my opinion is astonishing feat, and not criticising it for completley unnecessary use of especially generative AI which is simply put theft (thats being laundered for use by actual artist redrawing the generated prompts thus giving it copyright it was lacking before) is very unprofessional and sad in my opinion. It might not be a big problem now, but it is such a slippery slope that the future looks very bleak for actual living artists. And no, generative ai is not a tool, it is theft, which ppl would now if they talked with actual artists involved in a class action lawsiuts aginst it. I really feel that this is an important topic to talk about in the industry and doing research about it should not be hard for journalists.

[@anangryscorpion5838]

I've not seen the movie yet but I have to agree with Simon, the movie would be better if it was forty minutes shorter. There's just no way it actually needs to be three and a half hours long.

[@nellsmc8977]

The reason why it cost so little to make was because it was made in Hungary where labour costs and shooting is very cheap 😑

[@twentywordsorlessYT]

I was intrigued until I learned about its runtime. I'm sorry, three and a half hours for a premise such as this (and its execution) sounds absolutely ridiculous. I can't help but feel like it should be one hour forty-five minutes at most.

[@joeb6705]

Wrong

[@kenwat5618]

Was honestly a dream! Sped by, rlly good

[@NGBRADLEY1991]

Feeling very conflicted about this one. Apparently they have used AI on Adrian Brodys Hungarian dialogue and then again at the end to generate sketches of buildings.

[@rossdurling6208]

It says a lot that Kermode asked Simon what he thought

[@bbbeezy]

Saw this a week ago with pretty much zero knowledge or preconceptions about it and thought the first 2/3 of the movie was fantastic. The story was rich and cinematography great…however. The story in the third act completely collapsed into something completely unrecognizable from the first two acts. It was really odd. Both my partner and I were both confused and ultimately disappointed at the decisions that were made. This could have been a great film but ultimately dissolved into a typical, preachy, basic movie. It’s definitely not worthy of best film IMO.

[@cinemaspire7258]

Ironically, the film kinda derails after the train accident

[@100Aliens]

3.5 hours holding a fart is very difficult for me

[@adamcammack3534]

Kermode I don't think we can dismiss the fact even a movie which you have liked using A.i. should be get a pass because its a scale tiping over especially if its used to alter performances.

[@anthonymartensen3164]

You dont even know what it was used for

[@asharmstrong6730]

@@adamcammack3534 Gibberish.

[@kermodeandmayostake]

Thanks for watching our video. Why not follow the best movie podcast in the world? Join us! podfollow.com/1616559297

[@stephenborland8129]

Not as thrilling as teriffier 3 then

[@ricocassim200]

We are all getting more conscious on the narratives of oppression we're being fed, just to state, this film could have been made about any persecuted immigrant from around the world (Africa, Asia, etc) as it's a work of fiction. But it wasn't. Just a comment so don't troll.

[@oscara.2636]

Guess what? It's actually a mid movie! Extremely good acting, pretty good soundtrack but just a tonal mess. Doesn't know what story it wants to tell half the time and the second half is an unsuccessful encore. It's not rubbish, but it's not the phenomenal epic it thinks it is.

[@gz1je]

nice review

[@ToTheWind]

Wow, Sounds extremely boring.

[@farvertex]

What a lack of depth

[@njt002]

I admire the craftsmanship of the film on its low budget, but in the end it was forgettable for me. I feel for immigrants tho.

[@nigelpierre1991]

Agreed. Didn't have anything that stuck with me.

[@lexis4490]

I think that’s it though, you feel something for immigrants. Lives completely destroyed, trying to start over and can’t.

[@mikewilson730]

Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Jones hate this film.

[@NightlyGiraffe]

What? 😂

[@hagakure222]

Ummm, immigration through the front door GOOD - jumping the queue and doing it through the backdoor BAD Common sense 😂😂😂

[@aaronisacomedian]

This movie is a reverse there will be blood, but an hour longer smh