The Brutalist (2024)

(dir. Brady Corbet) From the disorienting first shot following Lázlo below decks on a ship arriving in New York to the slanted credits at the end this is a visually striking film. This works with David Blumberg’s unsettling but propulsive score to establish a tone of wrongness that undercuts the prosperous 1940s and 50s American setting.

Adrien Brody as Lázlo is good, as is Felicity Jones as his wife, but it is Guy Pearce’s weird performance as Van Buren that was the real highlight for me. He is always nearly charming, but with something lurking beneath that surface that only reveals itself more clearly near the end of the film.

It is a film that seems to wants to challenge simple interpretation, so if you are someone who is frustrated by a lack of clarity it will likely irritate more than please over its three-and-a-half-hour (plus intermission) runtime. It is a gruelling watch in many ways–the sex scenes are particularly difficult–but I never found it anything less than fascinating. And it is also occasionally also very funny, with Lázlo’s putdown to a rival architect delivered perfectly:

Everything that is ugly, cruel, stupid — but, most importantly, ugly — is your fault.

★★★★☆