The Brutalist
At 10 Oscar nominations, the Brutalist trails only Emilia Pérez in number of nominations, and unlike Emilia Pérez, it is completely deserving of all of them. An absolute tour de force of cinema. Adrien Brody is on my ever-growing must watch list and he completely delivers in a gut-wrenching marathon of screentime. I thought Felicity Jones was great as well, but Guy Pearce is as equally electric as Adrien Brody, and brings this perfect counterpart energy to each scene their paired in that’s just… chef’s kiss. At 3 hours and 35 minutes, it’s obviously a long watch, but I’m obsessed with the fact that Brady Corbet put a literal 15 minute intermission in the middle of this, with a timer and everything. As someone with a untimely small bladder, that is brilliant, and really gave the film a special feel to it. It’s a technical masterpiece, no doubt, but as I felt about Oppenheimer last year, my enjoyment of this keeps my rating down. It’s depiction of the immigrant experience, while accurate, is grating, and I personally need more joy or comedy in my masterpiece to get it any higher. At just 36 years old, I’m fascinated to see what Brady Corbet does next.
-Z
So glad we saw this in theaters - it was quite the experience! I almost felt like I had watched an entire season of a TV show by the time we finally left the theater. Somehow it did not feel too long, which is quite a feat, and I hope more films utilize the built-in intermission idea. I’m expecting this one to take Best Picture.
-E
“I've found our conversation persuasive and intellectually stimulating.” - Harrison
I also found this movie pretty intellectually stimulating, but the first thing that must be said is WOW this is long. Luckily, the intermission was fantastic and I believe any movie over 2.5 hours should really think about adding one. Good for the audience, money to make from the theater, and most importantly bladders around the world. Despite it being so long, the movie really didn’t feel lit like it at all. It gave all the great vibes that Oppenheimer gave and it was really engaging. Along with that, it was filmed in a way that was obviously slow, but extremely deliberate. My big issue with this film and keeping it from high 9’s is that it just left a lot unanswered. It makes you fill in the blanks however you want, and I think that is a cop-out by a film. Maybe I am looking at it too harshly, but it bugs me. Overall, I don’t really see a world where this doesn’t win the best picture award and it is well deserved for a never ending list of reasons. Just like Nickel Boys, you have to be kind of be a sick cinephile like Z, E, and myself to spend 4 hours at the theater, but this is definitely more accessible to a general audience than a traditional ‘Oscar bait’ flick.
-J
