The Brutalist (2024) Review

Brutal in more ways than one

I was very excited to see The Brutalist it took forever for it to come to a theater close enough. I knew it was going to be long, but hearing words like “epic” and “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore” made me interested. Most importantly I am still in search of what movie is winning best picture at the Oscars and after the Golden Globe best drama win I’m thinking this might have a shot but more on that later.

The Brutalist is Adrien Brody stepping back into the mode he was in The Pianist (2002) where he plays a tortured Jewish artist who has been super messed up by the holocaust, as one would expect. The movie is broken up into 4 parts. His first few years in America where he just barely gets by, a 15-minute intermission (which was a first for me in theaters), the second half where he is finally reunited with his wife played by Felicity Jones then works for Guy Pearce’s character building a massive building, then finally a short epilogue where we get part of the movie’s thesis told to us.

To start with the positives Adrien Brody and the supporting actors are all unsurprisingly great here. With the exception of Joe Alwyn (as he will forever be tainted for me because I married a Swifty), he was not bad but for legal reasons, I have to say I didn’t like him.

I have mad respect for Brady Corbet for shooting a film this big in scope on film and for such a small budget. There is some real movie magic in the way he is able to shoot these buildings and cityscapes in the modern day but make it feel like it was the 50s. The score was booming and the main theme is very rad. The cinematography was on point if you have seen the trailer you know the level of shots we are dealing with the upside-down shot of the Statue of Liberty and the shot of Adrien Brody smoking with the welding sparks (pictured above) are already Iconic in my mind.

With all that being said when my focus on the film’s craft means I ultimately did not connect to the story and found the struggles related to drugs a bit derivative and exhausting. Especially because this is an original story not based on anyone real there was no need to add the drug plot personally he had so many more interesting struggles as it was, I found that struggle to be dull and unnecessary. I think if I never saw a movie about heroin addiction again I would be fine, they all feel the same to me. I feel this muted reaction most likely because I do not know much about architecture or the mid-century immigrant experience. I found the character of László Tóth to be easier to pity than to root for, potentially because his journey had very few highs and mostly lower and lower lows.

What on earth is winning best picture?

While the Oscar nominees have yet to be announced my guess for the Best Picture lineup is:

A Complete Unknown
A Real Pain
Anora
Conclave
Dune Part 2
Emilia Pérez
Sing Sing
The Brutalist
The Substance
Wicked

Honestly, my hope was when I saw The Brutalist everything would become clear. I would see the best picture winner clearly but with the fires in LA, I don’t think a downer like this film is going to win. After I watched all these movies (granted I have not seen Sing Sing) I can’t see anyone of these films that has a perfect path to victory, which is exciting the last few years have been so predictable. Because none of them seem really like Best Picture winners or have a few knocks against them. Here are my thoughts about the current front runners and which movies have a chance to win and why:

Title	Why might it win	Why it might not win
A Complete Unknown	It’s pure Oscar bait and Timmy might win Best Actor.	They are not going to Bohemian Rhapsody us again, right?
A Real Pain	Kieran Culkin has supporting actor on lock and it has a great screenplay. This year feels kind of like a CODA year and this is most like CODA as far as categories it could win.	It’s too small of a movie and has a small win package.
Anora	Sean Baker is respected and could win best director and Mikey Madison could win best actress.	It’s kind of an odd best picture winner it’s more a comedy than one might expect. Demi Moore could win best Actress over Mikey.
Conclave	This is a super strong contender overall and could win best adapted screenplay.	Honestly this feels like this is number 2 or 3 in all categories it will be nominated for and will win nothing :(
Dune Part 2	This is the best movie of the year. But it will not win.	It’s a part 2, it’s science fiction and they might not nominate Denis, crazies.
Emilia Pérez	This will probably win best supporting actress, and for some reason, the industry loves it a lot it won the Golden Globe for comedy musical	It has very low ratings on most websites and is not well liked among audiences.
Sing Sing	I haven’t seen it heard it’s great.	It might not even be nominated A24 messed this up no one saw it
The Brutalist	Adrien Brody might win best actor, and maybe best director, it really has a shot still.	I think it might be Power of the Dog situation.
The Substance	This will not win.	It’s a body horror movie and the fact that it’s even getting nominated is crazy.
Wicked	It’s a happy feel-good pick that made a ton of money and has actresses firmly in both races.	Its a part 1, if it was one movie it might have Best Picture on lock.

TL;DR

So The Brutalist is a bit of a letdown for me because it is kind of a downer, the craft and acting on display is impressive but that is about it for me. It did not help me see the Oscars Best Picture race clearly but that makes this year all the more fun.