Ten days ago I caught “The Brutalist” at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline. It was a slushy Sunday morning with snow on the ground and salt on the sidewalks. Nevertheless, I was determined to see the 11 a.m. screening of “The Brutalist.” All three screenings had sold out the day before.
I took my seat in the main theater along with nearly 400 other people. The last time I saw that many people in a movie house was for 2023’s “The Boy and The Heron.” Of course, that was a 9:45 p.m. showing on a Friday night, also in the Coolidge’s main theater.
The perfect timing of “The Brutalist” is hard to overstate. I know, it is a long film. But it doesn’t feel that way, or at least it didn’t to me. Simply put, you must make time to see this masterpiece. Carve out space now. Trust me, you will not regret this. And it starts at The Triplex this Friday.
“The Brutalist” is a sweeping epic drama directed by Brady Corbet and starring Adrien Brody. Brody plays a Hungarian-Jewish architect named László Tóth. Incredibly, this fictional character survives the Holocaust, emigrates to the United States, and starts a new life in Pennsylvania while waiting for his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and his niece Zsófia (Ramey Cassidy) to flee Eastern Europe, too.
“The Brutalist” opens slowly as a mid-century promo film extols Pennsylvania as the “Land of Decision.” Produced by the Keystone State’s Commerce Department, its message pushes tourism and industry: “… Pennsylvania is a deciding factor more often than any other state,” the narrator unironically tells us.
Suffice it to say, László soon meets wealthy Bucks County industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, played by Guy Pearce. Van Buren eventually sees Tóth’s talent and hires him for a special project.
Meanwhile, Tóth is living between two cultures, doing his absolute best to assimilate while still working through the trauma of World War II. Separated from family, his immigrant experience is not unique. Millions of eventual Americans arrive in similar circumstances and, until Monday, still did.
“The Brutalist” depicts many things, including a crucial scene expertly shot in a Carrara marble mine. And for a long movie with an intermission, the break comes exactly when it should.
Watching “The Brutalist” feels like a certain kind of time travel, not to mention a commentary on the American Dream. Brody embodies this all so beautifully and will be nominated for another Academy Award tomorrow. Likewise, Corbet will snag a best director nom, too. Pearce and Jones deserve to be nominated as well.
I loved this movie so much, I found it difficult to speak afterwards. Seeing it at this exact moment in U.S. history, well, may God have mercy on us all.
