June 15

This is probably the biggest film during the June Swoon this year. The Brutalist is a multiple Academy Award winning epic film. It is a massive three and a half hour long with an intermission in the middle, even on HBO Max.

Adrian Brody won his second Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who immigrated to the United States after surviving a concentration camp during the Holocaust. László meets industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren, played by Guy Pierce, who also received an Academy Award nomination for the role. He became László’s client, hiring him to design a project in honor of his dead mother.

Felicity Jones was another cast member to receive an Academy Award nomination for her role as Erzsébet Tóth, László’s wife, a journalist and a survivor of Dachau. These three performances were the backbone of the movie.

The look of the movie was amazing. The shots of the film was both wonderful and painful. There was a lot of dread in the shots. The music made this movie even more special, compelling the story to move in such a major way. Both the cinematography and the score were award Academy Award wins.

The second half of the movie does go off the tracks a bit, but that feels like it was destined to do so after such a brilliant first act. Some of the resolution of the ending seemed unsatisfying after such a commitment to the film. Without spoiling what happened, it felt as if it came out of nowhere. Still, there are some powerful ideas happening within the film.

I do think this is easily a film built on the performances, as well as the technical aspects. These are standout sections of The Brutalist.