Mucking With Movies: ‘The Brutalist’

I have 750 words to breakdown a three- and a three-and-a-half-hour movie, so no time for bullocks this week; let’s dive into the deep end headfirst. 

Not technically innovating and without an enriching storyline, “The Brutalist” is a testament to the empty ideals that America holds itself to. To quote one of my favorite film critics, Ethan Rosenberg: “We’ve reached a dead end. Money, religion, and power — the American cornerstones — they don’t mean anything anymore. Even our art doesn’t do us much good …” Rosenberg wrote this in 2019 in regards to Harmony Korine’s “Beach Bum,” and I find it deeply relevant to “The Brutalist,” as I find them perfectly on the opposite sides of the spectrum. “Beach Bum” is the vapid critique of the empty husk that contemporary art like “The Brutalist” shelters in. 

Unwilling or unable to cut into any of its themes with a serrated edge, the whole film feels like a first act. Zionism, the predatory nature between artist and financier, and the disdain for victims — are all ideas director Brady Corbet tactfully observes during “The Brutalist” without adding anything interesting to the ripe subjects. While I watch, my brain is being downloaded on, I have no space nor catalyst to ponder these heavy ideas. Corbet is bouncing things off the wall and hoping something sticks with the viewer, but it is a fruitless effort, as I battle to keep up with the next broached subject. 

This whirlwind of ideas enables the over 200-minute runtime to never drag, which indubitably is an achievement on Corbet’s part. It manages this by being unpredictable in a very comfortable way. Nothing comes completely out of nowhere, but you still have no ideas on where the film is going to go next. It needs its full runtime to tell its story, so it is a full story and deserves credit for that.

Credit to the actors, as well, as there was no weak performance in the film. It had particularly strong outings from Guy Pearce as eccentric wealthy philanthropist Harrison Lee Van Buren and, unsurprisingly, another historic performance from Adrien Brody. That man really can do no wrong. His characters always feel like a complete representation of the person he is playing, a complete detachment to lose himself in another. Corbet, at least, has enough sense to train the camera on his face and rarely takes it away. The entire film hinges upon his ascent and descent in reuniting with his family and then dealing with the ensuing fallout.  

But still, my favorite scene in the film is the 15-minute intermission about halfway through. A gorgeously taken photograph of Laszlo (Brody) and Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) on their wedding day with their family takes over the screen, as a piano plays clumsily, albeit peacefully, in the background. I feel content as I watch the 15-minute intermission clock tick down; here, my mind is mercifully granted permission to wander, my spirit a moment to digest everything that had gone on. But as I sat, I realized that I felt nothing. It made me feel so sick of art.

All art should be an attempt to replicate the feeling of love, the feeling of blood flowing away from your fingertips during the cold, the feeling of looking down a long, straight road. “The Brutalist” does none of this. The feeling would persist through the film’s second half, as well. I felt no change in myself at the film’s end. No lightness, no heaviness, no curiosity at a corner of the world that I had not seen before. 

Nothing means anything; awards are handed out with more regard to acknowledgment than artistic achievement. The work that receives them stands tall without considering that it is being propped up. “The Brutalist” is a film that seems relevant, so it is rewarded.

But it feels that we never stop to consider the merit of its relevancy. While it would be silly for me to purport to you that “The Brutalist” is without quality, it would be equally irresponsible for me to say it is worthwhile. It is high-brow for high-brow sake, a long, meandering movie that ultimately goes nowhere. It feels like one long first act, where you are watching a story being set up and are waiting for it to be followed through on.

I can’t wait to never watch this film again. 

Critic Score: 5.0 out of 10