The Brutalist (2024)

This will not be my final review of this film as I'm writing this months after seeing this in theaters, but I'll never forget sobbing for the first hour of this film. My wife thought something was wrong with me. There's something so harrowing about the opener. The music, the aesthetic, Adrien Brody's powerful performance as Laszlo, it was all so moving to me. I love that the focus is post war and not during. The effort to rebuild oneself like a phoenix being reborn is such a moving story - escaping the cruelest part of recent history. As an artist Laszlo's specialty is architecture and my goodness - powerful filmmaking. With a combined effort director Brady Corbet, cinematographer Lol Crawley, and production designer Judy Becker all worked together to deliver a truly unique experience. Shooting without a storyboard they allowed the production design, which was inspired by architectural heritage, to steer the direction. It's beautifully done and brought me to tears all over again. However, this is a very long movie and its not all great. I don't plan to watch this again soon. It's rooted deeply in pain and it's runtime is almost a full day's commitment. We were very lucky to see this at a full service theater that served meals and had free refills, but the comfort of a home theater will definitely be the place to immerse yourself into this experience.

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