By Daniel Correa

4/23/25

The three-and-a-half-hour epic film The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet and released on December 20, 2024, is one of the best films of the year. Since its release, it has received ten nominations at the Oscars and won awards at the Golden Globes for its cinematography, score, and the acting of its lead, Adrien Brody. Brody plays László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who flees the Holocaust and the Second World War and migrates to America. Tóth’s brutalist architecture impresses millionaire Harrison Van Buren, played by Guy Pearce, who commissioned Tóth to build a community center for the community of Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Tóth, who has been separated from his wife and niece in Europe, falls into a world of drug addiction and illicit activity as he explores the world of post-war America: paranoid and chaotic, yet tranquil and auspicious. The soundtrack reflects this with many of the tracks being mixes of bombastic and clear melodies that resemble the theme song of a superhero that slowly dissolve into chaotic avant-garde noodling over time. The film’s themes revolve around questions of whether the American Dream is merely a dream, how people interpret the artist’s art, questions about Jewishness, and what it means to be a Jew in America. 

The film stands as probably the best of this year and certainly deserves its critical acclaim. The cinematography in this film looks beautiful, as Corbet shot the film on VistaVision 35 mm film stock. The colors are like something out of an old-school Hollywood film. In the prologue, there is a one-shot scene where Brody walks through a crowd of immigrants on a ship, going from the bottom to the deck, and then the camera pans upward like a show of the Statue of Liberty as if you were there standing on the deck looking up. Another great element of the film was the beginning and end credits, which were designed in an unorthodox fashion that resembles the brutalist architecture featured in the film. 

There was controversy over the fact that AI was used in post-production to give Brody’s voice a more accurate Hungarian accent. Although there is an accusation of laziness that can be made for the accent to be added in post, there is no real danger of anyone losing their job over such a decision, and that seems to be the greatest concern of AI’s impact on the film industry currently. Besides Brody, Guy Pearce was great as industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren. He plays a dynamic and complex portrayal of the mid-century American millionaire that makes you like him and loathe him simultaneously. Overall, the acting in The Brutalist was excellent, and Brody certainly deserves the Oscar he won for the film. 

The film’s writing and themes are interesting in and of themselves. The film begins with the process of immigration to America, it shows the process of slow assimilation, and the way that immigrants change to fit the culture of the country they immigrated to, as we meet many characters who were immigrants who have now assimilated into American culture. Other themes include the interpretation of art by the audience. Tóth’s art is interpreted by his niece to be symbolic of his experience at concentration camps during the Holocaust. However, the film never shows this as being the case, and Tóth is never allowed to object or clarify what his Brutalist architecture means since, by the end of the film, he is mute due to a stroke. 

These themes reflect the popular discourse in current art culture of the Death of the Author, and how we should treat the intentions of the artists when we analyse art. Judaism also plays an important role in the film, as most of the main characters are Jewish. Many significant events in post-WWII Jewish history occur throughout the film and influence the decisions of the characters. There is a scene where a radio broadcast announcing the creation of the state of Israel by the UN in Yiddish plays over Tóth building furniture. The scene draws parallels between the two acts of creation, both the state of Israel and the furniture, signifying comfort and a place for the Jews to rest.

It is interesting to me that The Brutalist is the first major Epic film that focuses on Jewish people since Schindler’s List in 1993. I wonder if, with the critical and financial success of this film, we will see more Epic films that focus on the Jewish experience. Perhaps even a distinctly Jewish biblical film, as Christians have cornered that market for a long time. If such things come to pass, that would be a very positive legacy of The Brutalist.

Overall, I would say that The Brutalist is a very poignant and wonderful film with amazing cinematography, acting, as well as a compelling and epic story about Jewishness in America. All of the praise it has received is true, and it is good that it has received the accolades it deserves. To add my praise to the pile, I believe that it is deserving of a 4/5 star rating, and it is certainly one of the best movies of the year.

Thank You and Good Night.