‘The Brutalist’ Trailer: Adrien Brody Leads Brady Corbet’s Historical Epic
Photo from A24
From Ryan Cordaro
It’s not too often that a movie gets described as a beast. I’ve seen a lot of this word (and a lot of synonyms) associated with this movie for the past month. What’s more overwhelming than a three-and-a-half-hour movie, with a 15 minute intermission? What’s more overwhelming than a three-and-a-half-hour arthouse movie? On top of that, what’s more overwhelming than a three-and-a-half-hour historical drama arthouse movie that mainly focuses on architecture? I don’t like to add to it, but what’s more overwhelming than a movie that’s all of those things that’s being favorably compared to There Will Be Blood and The Godfather by critics? Well, it feels like The Brutalist is going to try and live up to those towering statements.
In The Brutalist, we follow László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust. After the end of World War II, he emigrates to the United States with his wife, Erzsébet, to experience the “American Dream.” They initially endure poverty and humiliation, but László soon lands a contract with a wealthy client that will change the course of his life. Believe it or not, while based on historical events, this is an entirely fictional story. It honestly threw me off a bit because of reading about the movie for a while now, I just thought it was based on a true story. The Brutalist has essentially come right out of the gate with not just praise, but immense praise. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year, where its director, Brady Corbet, was awarded the Silver Lion for Best Director. As the first whole paragraph basically spells out, The Brutalist seems like a lot, but I’d really like to see what this movie is, especially if it lives up to the hype.
The Brutalist stars Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Winning Time), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Rogue One), Guy Pearce (Memento, the upcoming The Shrouds), Joe Alwyn (The Favourite, Kinds of Kindness), Raffey Cassidy (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Vox Lux), Stacy Martin (All the Money in the World, Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1), Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown, A Haunting in Venice), Isaach de Bankolé (Black Panther, Casino Royale), and Alessandro Nivola (The Many Saints of Newark, the upcoming The Room Next Door).
A24 is handling The Brutalist’s release, with a limited run starting on December 20th, 2024. As what normally happens with A24, the rest of the world will get The Brutalist in a slow rollout that continues into at least February 2025.
