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The Brutalist, twinned with an 18-certificate, is one of those films with a title that makes you think it’s going to be heavy on the violence, but isn’t. That’s because it refers to the type of architecture for buildings that were thought to look amazing back in the ’50s and ’60s, but within a couple of decades including the grey ’70s, they mostly turn out to be a concrete abomination which will date horribly. Just look at the main car park in Stockport!
(Well, that might not be brutalist, but it’s still brutal!)
Plus, although it doesn’t state this at the start, or even on the poster, the film comes in two sections of approximately 100 minutes, plus a 15-minute built-in intermission. You’d think the BBFC title card would be a place to also state it includes an intermission. When I saw Star Trek: The Motion Picture Director’s Edition in 2022, the title card didn’t state that, then, either, so I just had to hope that Cineworld were showing the right version!
Even if you don’t mind being sat in the cinema for 3hrs 35 minutes without a break, I could do with a leg-stretch at least.
The Brutalist centres around Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody – See How They Run), who has migrated to New York after being released from the Buchenwald concentration camp, and previously being separated from his wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 3D), and niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy – The Killing Of A Sacred Deer).
Upon reuniting with his cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola – Kraven The Hunter), they’re commissioned by Harry Lee (Joe Alwyn – Kinds Of Kindness) to build a bespoke libary study, to which our lead including a central skylight. However, once Harry’s father, Harrison (Guy Pearce – Neighbours: A New Chapter), gets wind of it, he’s less than impressed and refuses to pay, all leading to László and Attila going their separate ways, although Harrison later makes up with László, because he wants him to build a Community Centre to honour his late mother, which will allow the public to enjoy it and will contain a libary, gym and other rooms.
However, why couldn’t Harrison come up with a new name for his son? It’s like George Foreman naming every child “George”!
Amongst the trials and tribulations of building such a huge structure, Erzsébet and Zsófia also make the journey over, albeit with the former suffering from osteoporosis from the famine, which has put her in a wheelchair.
Without going into detail about how things pan out – since the point is to watch the film to discover all that, at 200 minutes plus the intermission, The Brutalist feels more like a mini-series, and when filmed in such a tight ratio of 1.66:1 (same for Nosferatu), for a film being released in 2025, it comes across as being arty farty for the sake of it. Additionally, most cinema screens are in the wide 2.39:1 aspect ratio, so on those, there’s an awful lot of blank space either side of the image.
The same goes for the titles given to how the film is broken up: Part 1 is “The Enigma of Arrival (1947-1952)“, Part 2 is “The Hard Core Of Beauty (1953-1960)“, and these are followed by a brief Epilogue, “The First Architecture Biennale“, a shortened moniker for The First International Architecture Exhibition of the Biennale, known as the Presence of the Past, which actually took place in Venice from July 27th to October 19th 1980, and provides a retrospective of László Tóth’s work over his time.
Something else unnecessary with the film comes to how the end credits scroll. While they do scroll up, they do so at a 45-degree diagonal angle. Why?! Plus, while a rather downbeat film concludes with the 1978 oddly-upbeat disco track, One for You, One for Me, by La Bionda, the song ends before the credits have finished, so the last 2-3 minutes are in complete silence! Err…
Still, while The Brutalist is a good film, and both Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce are fantastic, I do have some reservations, which I’ll put in a spoiler section below, and at the time of posting, I might add to it. However, I’d recommend avoiding it prior to watching the film.
Now a couple of issues while watching the film, first about the sound, and then about certain audience members.
As with The Flash, in June 2023, I saw The Brutalist in screen 2 (normally used for ScreenX, but this was a regular screening), and the same sound problem which once affected screen 6 (which I was told, after Champions, was completely fixed, but Air proved Cineworld’s customer service bods were telling fibs) then later came to this screen.
After mentioning it to a member of staff back in 2023, the manager came in during the ads and trailers. He said the speaker wasn’t defective, but if it’s not the speaker, then there is some other problem, because while the front-centre speakers are fine in both, the front-left/right audio is pushed over to the right in screen 6, and in screen 2, it’s pushed over to the left.
It’s as clear as the ear can hear, when you’re sat in the centre of a row, while in this case, all the ads and trailers came through the centre speaker, the problem only became apparent, this time, during the film itself. So, whenever there was any incidental music or the score, it only came out the front-left speaker. Given that it’s mostly a dialogue-based film, it was less of an issue.
However, for The Flash, when Michael Keaton first appears and it plays Chicago’s 25 Or 6 To 4, or during the earlier bridge scene when a certain individual’s theme is played (I’m trying to avoid spoilers), the problem is badly obvious. Back then, the man I spoke to said he would keep an eye on it, but I heard the problem all the way from the moment I was sat in there, until the film had finished.
I mentioned during my review of that film about how it happened in other screens, but for this problem to STILL be broken OVER NINTEEN MONTHS LATER is just fucking embarrassing.
And now for the audience… While I was sat in this central seat, I noticed that 3 rows back, and sat by the aisle, (not a good seating position when it’s a 1.66:1 film being shown on a 2.39:1 screen, and the seats are only at either side), were two old women who’d occasionally be talking to each other as if they were sat on the sofa.
I managed to block it out for most of the first half of the film, but they started to do it more as the second part began, not even taking the hint from the screen that the intermission had ended and Part 2 had begun.
Since they were 3 rows back, I had to sit up to get a better look at them, confirmed it was definitely them and no-one else and gave a shush. I was amazed no-one else closer had done anything before then, but since I spoke up, it became easier for others, and immediately after, the guy behind me turned to them and said louder, “Will you JUST. STOP. TALKING!! JEEZ!” – I got the feeling he’d been itching to say that!
They kept quiet for some time, but I know close to the end, they’d started up again.
Had a similar thing I remember, in Air, in April 2023, where there was an old couple gabbing away behind me from time to time, as if they were occasionally replying to things said onscreen, such as Sonny hoping he succeeds in signing Jordan, and the bloke went, “I hope you do”. Shut up, man! This isn’t a conversation!
As you’ll see from that review, it was also one of the screens which the sound only coming out of one of the front side speakers. God, Cineworld haven’t got a fucking clue, have they?!
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credit scenes.
The Brutalist is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 215 minutes (inc. 15-minute intermission built-in)
Release date: January 24th 2025
Studio: A24
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 (Vistavision)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 7/10
Director: Brady Corbet
Producers: Nick Gordon, DJ Gugenheim, Andrew Lauren, Trevor Matthews, Andrew Morrison, Brian Young
Screenplay: Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
Music: Daniel Blumberg
Cast:
László Tóth: Adrien Brody
Erzsébet Tóth: Felicity Jones
Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.: Guy Pearce
Harry Lee: Joe Alwyn
Zsófia: Raffey Cassidy
Maggie Lee: Stacy Martin
Gordon: Isaach De Bankolé
Attila: Alessandro Nivola
Older Zsofia: Ariane Labed
Jim Simpson: Michael Epp
Audrey: Emma Laird
Leslie Woodrow: Jonathan Hyde
Michael Hoffman: Peter Polycarpou
Michelle Hoffman: Maria Sand
Orazio: Salvatore Sansone
Teenage William: Zephan Hanson Amissah
Young William: Charlie Esoko
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.