To continue the theme of discussing movies that I had been heavily anticipating, I finally got to see The Brutalist, and I was told that it had to been seen on the biggest screen possible, but I was not able to make the IMAX screening, so I saw it in the RPX theater, which is not that much different. The Brutalist has been receiving much critical acclaim, and it is up there in the top three for best picture contender according to many. It is three and a half hours long, and that includes a fifteen-minute intermission, which I appreciated greatly.
The Brutalist follows Laszlo on his journey of coming to America and trying to make something of himself. He had to flee from his home of Budapest, and he left his family behind. When he arrived in New York, he was working for a family member, Attila, before being accused of ruining Attila’s relationship with a client. He was also accused of making a move on Attila’s wife, but not before he built an immaculate library for a very rich man, Harrison Lee Van Buren.
One day Van Buren comes and finds Laszlo, who is now working a hard labor job, and he invites him over for dinner, but this invite really turns more into a kidnapping. Van Buren has a job that he wants to commission Laszlo to do, a giant shrine/community building to dedicate to his recently deceased mother. Laszlo says he wants to earn it first, and he creates an incredible model of what he will build, and then the project starts.
Of course, it never goes exactly as planned, and there is a side plot of getting Laszlo’s family over from Europe to come and live with him, and when they arrive this also throws in some additional problems for the chemistry of the whole group. There is a falling out, and the project is temporarily finished, but when Laszlo gets called back, he cannot say no to getting a chance to finish his creation.
This is a story about the American Dream, an immigrant fleeing from distress in their country to come to the U.S to find financial success and happiness. Sadly, the execution of the American Dream is usually much more depressing. It involves coming over, and in some cases in a very dangerous way, and in the case of this movie without your family, then trying to find a job, and it is not easy to find a good job when a person is immigrating from someplace else. I have heard multiple stories of people having high paying jobs in their country, but then they come to the U.S, and they are unable to get the equivalent level of work, because their requirements do meet the U.S’s. Even my Georgia teaching certificate was useless in New York, and that is within the same country!
This was also a story about ambition and the cost of greatness. Van Buren basically kidnapped Laszlo. He took him to his fancy house and basically told him he had to stay the night, and that he did not need to go to his hard labor job anymore. He said that Laszlo can stay at the guest house on his estate. Obviously, Laszlo cannot turn down this offer, especially because it includes a hefty architectural assignment, and Laszlo wants to be great. He was a commendable architect back home, and he needed the chance to show that he still is, even if that meant that he was treated more like a pet than an equal.
There are two key scenes that show the disrespect that Van Buren directed toward Laszlo. The first was the night Laszlo’s family arrived, Van Buren had them over for dinner, and he was very disrespectful toward Laszlo and his accent, and then he threw a penny at Laszlo and said he would be shining shoes without him, and after apologizing he made Laszlo pick up the penny and hand it back to him. Not a great first impression by the man that is housing them, but they did not have much of a choice. The second example is even more disturbing. One night while in Italy, Van Buren takes advantage of a very intoxicated Laszlo, who was in no way capable of being able to defend himself, and there really is no reproach for Laszlo if he wanted to finish his project. He felt powerless.
Also during the construction of the project, Van Buren placed people over Laszlo to help control the costs and try to make it as efficient as possible. Brady Corbet used this as a symbolic representation of film companies trying to place borders on the art of his films. Corporate environments and their rules and monetary restrictions can make it so that at the end of the day the creation is not what the artist wanted. This is a story that I have heard repeatedly about the creation of movies and TV shows. The problem is that artists need to be funded, and when they are taking funding from someone else, then that person also gets a say. Laszlo was so willing to stand up against the restrictions that were being placed upon him, that he basically sacrificed all the income that he was given, so that he could build it the way he wanted to, even if that meant spending his own money on the more expensive materials he wanted. It should also be noted that this movie was only made for $10 million, which is an incredibly low amount!
The whole movie felt like a work of art. Brady Cobert also chose to do something that no one has done since 1960. He filmed using a Vista Vision camera. This means that it was all recorded on a specific type of film, and this is noticeable when viewing, because the images have more texture to them, which I personally love. Every time the shot changed; I felt like I needed to digest the new image. They managed to make some mundane places look beautiful, and they took some beautiful places and made them look extraordinary. Just watching the people talk to each other was mesmerizing, and when they went to Italy to see the marble mines, I was blown away at the natural landscapes, and how they were able to capture them.
The score of the movie is great as well, especially the main theme. It does such a good job of crescendoing. When they play it during the opening credits of the bus scene, it gave me goosebumps. The bass notes were perfect. I always know I like a score or soundtrack, when I listen to it while writing the paper, and this is one of those scores. I would not be surprised if it won the Oscar.
Adrien Brody has also received some Best Actor Oscar love for his performance as Laszlo. He has won once before for his role in The Pianist, and many are saying that he might win again this year. Personally, I thought he was great, there were times when his performance had me staring so intently, but I do not think that this was the best performance of the year. I think Colman Domingo should win for his role as Divine G in Sing Sing, but there is a case to be made for Guy Pearce to win best supporting actor for his role as Van Buren. The way he yelled had me intimidated, and I was just watching him on the screen. There is true power in that performance. Obviously, he does more than just yell, he plays a pretentious and condescending dirt bag, and he does it so well.
This movie did not live up to the standard of the best film of the year, but of course that is a hard standard to reach, but I thought it had a chance. It was truly a beautiful film, and it felt a little long, but it did not feel like 3.5 hours, which was great. It had a solid pace, and it felt like it kept chugging along. All the incredible visuals made it easy to stay attuned to what was going on, and it was clear that the dialogue was carefully crafted, and it was presented with care. The performances are great as well, so all around it is an incredible piece of cinema. I give it 4 Stars!
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