The Brutalist - Movie Review

[@singstreetcar5881]

This is what megalopolis was supposed to be

[@paultosinijaola1653]

Saw the film at NYFF last weekend. One of my favorites of year, close to being my favorite film in the last decade

[@jdreviews1182]

Oscar expert brought me here. Happy to be a new subscriber!

[@Nazi-rj3gz]

Adrienbrody ❤❤

[@ZO6Buccaneer]

Great review! Just saw it today so haven’t had too long to digest it, but wanted to share some thoughts. Agreed regarding the masterful craftsmanship on display. The cinematography and score were phenomenally beautiful. Brody continues to show that he’s one of the best actors of his generation. The first half did a great job of laying the foundation (pun intended), but I felt the second half to be a bit of a letdown compared to the first. Some ***spoilers*** below: My biggest issue is likely with the assault scene in Italy. While you both seemed to see it more as Hamilton being homosexual (possibly true based on what we know about him), I saw the scene as literalizing the movie’s theme that capitalism r*pes art. If this is the director’s intent of the scene, it’s just way too on the nose. Nearly 2 hours of the film are spent with Laszlo repeatedly defending the value of his work, only for the Van Burens to constantly nickel and dime him at every turn. To then show the capitalist literally r*ping the artist felt far too direct when the film had been quite nuanced up to that point. And to add on to that, Laszlo’s wife then also has to explicate that Harrison r*aped Laszlo. We get it, capitalism doesn’t see the true value in art and simply seeks to extract whatever value it can from artists. On a different point, I didn’t understand the intent of making Laszlo a heroin addict and all the time the film spent focusing on it without much payoff. Harrison makes a comment that Laszlo doesn’t respect himself, so why should others. Maybe I’m completely missing something. Finally, the epilogue. Maybe it’s just a personal pet peeve of mine against most film epilogues, but this one just didn’t seem to add much. Maybe I was just a bit tired after 3.5 hours.

[@moviehusbands]

I definitely understand what you’re saying about the sexual assault. From a metaphorical perspective, it is rather on the nose. I’m anxious to watch the film again and see if it works better for a character perspective - we certainly know Van Buren, whether homosexual or not, is controlling and motivated by power, culminating in the irredeemable rape. However, I want to see if some of those insidious destructive threads are more obvious on a second viewing. If anything, that’s the one part of the film that can seem out of nowhere, which seems oddly haphazard, considering how well crafted the rest of it is. Again, I look forward to seeing it again. However, I do disagree a little bit on the epilogue. I think the details Laslo was so insistent on: the height of the ceilings, the placement of the windows and other details of his architecture, made his behavior less egotistical in retrospect. It actually reframed the film I think in an interesting way.

[@ZO6Buccaneer]

@@moviehusbands thanks for the reply! Will definitely need a rewatch in the future to see how it changes my views on some of these items.

[@singstreetcar5881]

Its an indie movie The budget is less than 10 million dollars