‘The Brutalist’ is a Triumph And I Hated It – Film Review

The most ‘one-star’ five-star movie yet

Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

I generally have found that tacking a star ranking onto a movie review to be pretty reductive. Saying a movie is ‘three stars’ does very little to tell me about the movie, and it’s happened more times than I can count where I’ve been blown away by a three-star movie—as judged by Letterboxd, usually—or been more than a little disappointed by a four-star movie.

In fairness to them, Letterboxd do have a small workaround to this conundrum—a ‘like’ button separate to the star ranking. If you see that someone ‘liked’ a movie they only gave three stars, then you can interpret that the movie is a ‘good three-star movie,’ as opposed to a movie that was trying for five and failed.

After all, there’s a world of difference between a three-star movie that knows it’s only a three-star movie; something that doesn’t take huge risks but manages to do what it does very well (for me, that movie is Venom) and a three-star movie that is so painfully average that you’ll forget you ever watched it.

But after watching The Brutalist, I’m presented with a new problem: a five-star movie that I’m pretty sure I despised. And unfortunately, Letterboxd doesn’t have a ‘dislike’ button, so I’m going to have to explain myself by writing a review.

The Naughty List

Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

Following his move to America post-World War II, Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) lands into the employ of Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pierce), a wealthy businessman looking to secure his legacy by undertaking a massive architectural project. But László’s wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) remains trapped in Europe. László may be able to secure her freedom through working with Van Buren, but his obsession and trauma might prove to be too much to overcome.

First things first—yes, this movie is over three-and-a-half hours long, including a fifteen-minute intermission. Honestly, this didn’t daunt me in the slightest. A good movie should be as long as it needs to be, and if it’s well-paced, its runtime shouldn’t be an issue. It was actually quite exciting—movies that long are often massive in scope and ambition, and I was excited to see what the filmmakers could pull off with such a length of time.

The Brutalist certainly doesn’t squander its runtime, but neither does it make great use of it. Lots of stuff happens, and I don’t think it dragged, but the culmination of all that stuff amounts to… not much.

Land of the Free

Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

I’m going to sound very harsh for a moment, but I promise I will touch on the movie’s good points soon. Let me just say that I find it borderline offensive that a movie this long, that sets up as many plot threads and character arcs as it does, manages to so completely and utterly fail to provide catharsis for any of it.

The first half of The Brutalist is fantastic. It is the story of an immigrant coming to America and struggling to adapt to society. Not groundbreaking, but certainly compelling. Brody, Pearce and Joe Alwyn are an acting trio like no other. There’s a fiery tension and grudging respect between these three actors that demands attention. They’re just so good. The second half of The Brutalist is, however, a shambles.

László’s mental deterioration as he struggles with building Van Buren’s project simply isn’t interesting, and as the story peters out—failing to follow up on pre-established plot threads and generally losing the run of itself—it really squandered most of the goodwill that it had built up.

It is an immaculately crafted movie, though. There’s a reason it’s getting so many Oscar nominations, and it’s because The Brutalist is the result of tremendous work and effort. The production design especially is top-notch. László’s creations are inspired and there’s a real sense of opulence in Van Buren’s living spaces. Alas, none of this can save a poor screenplay.

Bear With Me

Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

There’s another aspect of the movie that troubled me, too. I’m not sure if I’m properly equipped to dig into it, but I’m going to try anyway:

I think there is something very pointed about The Brutalist—a movie about a Jewish man struggling to find a home—releasing during the current climate re: Israel and Palestine. Characters in The Brutalist discuss going to live in Israel repeatedly—despite none of them actually being from there. They view the land as their home by right of religion, and it is not a viewpoint that is strongly challenged.

I have a tough time believing that this film isn’t—in some way—a response to the recent genocide in Palestine, but rather than taking the side of the victims of the tragedy, The Brutalist aligns itself with Israel, the perpetrators of more than 40,000 Palestinian deaths over the last few years.

It isn’t that surprising that The Brutalist would ‘side’ with Israel, given the many reports of Hollywood creatives losing their jobs for speaking out in defence of Palestine (and I understand that ‘side’ might be too strong a word for what The Brutalist does; it’s not like the movie is constantly shoving Zionist rhetoric down the viewer’s throat or anything)

And, look—I understand that good cinema can challenge our biases and change our perspectives. I’m not angry that the film took a political stance that I disagree with. I’m happy when a film forces me to empathise with a character or situation that makes me uncomfortable—that’s the power of the medium.

But The Brutalist doesn’t make a compelling argument for itself. I like the idea of a movie about a Jewish immigrant struggling to find a home; of going as far to make him somewhat dislikeable despite the suffering he’s been through; of pushing him towards madness. But the sour taste this movie left in my mouth as the credits rolled is undebatable.

It wasn’t just the casual flirtations with Zionism that it didn't try to back with real debate. It wasn’t just the unwieldy second half. It wasn’t just the movie’s inability to present a satisfying climax to a single one of its plot threads. It was that all of this combined results in a movie that doesn’t feel like it’s saying anything.

The movie’s final statement proclaims that, unlike what is commonly espoused, it is the destination that matters, not the journey—that no cost is too great in pursuit of the final result. Well, let me tell you now, nothing about this movie is worth three-and-a-half hours of your life.  

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Thanks for reading my review of The Brutalist. If you liked it, consider checking out my wishlist or buying me a cup of coffee at https://ko-fi.com/kieranobrien or below.