BRUTALIST, THE
(director/writer: Brady Corbet; screenwriter: Mona Fastvold; cinematographer: Lol Crawley; editor: David Jancso; music: Daniel Blumberg; cast: Adrien Brady (Laszo Toth), Felicity Jones (Erzsebet Toth), Guy Pearce (Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.), Joe Alwyn (Harry Lee), Emma Laird (Audrey), Alessandro Nivola (Attila), Raffey Cassidy (Zsofia), Stacy Martin (Maggie Lee), Isaach De Bankole (Gordon), Ariane Labed (Older Zsofia), Michael Epp (Jim Simpson), Jonathan Hyde (Leslie Woodrow), Maria Sand (Michelle Hoffman), Salvatore Sansone (Orazio), Peter Polycarpou (Michael Hoffman); Runtime: 210; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, Nick Gordon, D.J. Gugenheim, Andrew Lauren, Trevor Matthews; A24; 2024)
“Epic art film on antisemitism.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Brady Corbet (“The Childhood of a Leader”/”Vox Lux”) directs and co-writes with Mona Fastvold this epic art film on antisemitism, that’s visually sound, far-reaching in tone, and bold and sophisticated. It gets an amazing performance from Adrien Brady as the Jewish Hungarian Holocaust survivor Laszo Toth, a visionary architect fleeing to America to live free.
He lands on Ellis Island and chills as he views The Statue of Liberty as a symbol of hope. In Philly he meets with his unreliable cousin (Alessandro Nivola), married to a Catholic, and his heroin addicted jazz lover friend (Isaach De Bankole). The wealthy businessman, who has the money but not the culture, Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce), hires him after seeing the furniture he designs for his cousin’s business. The industrialist then hires him to build a church outside of Philadelphia and a gigantic Xanadu-like building dedicated to his late mother on his estate. The visionary is forced to interact with his venomous son Harry (Joe Alwyn). In the end, the wealthy industrialist still considers the Jew an inferior, who might have the talent but not the breeding of the ruling class.
Laszo lives with his ailing but zesty wife Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) and his mute-like niece Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy). His wife was alone in Budapest till she was able to join him in America.
Brody carries the film, but Guy Pearce’s performance is gut-wrenching and lifts this into a major art film covering such things as family, money, obsession and addiction.
It’s a different kind of a story about the American Dream that seems familiar but is not. Its theme has one of my favorite Goethe quotes that goes something like this “If you ever think you’re free, you’re not.”
It played at the Toronto International Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 12/2/2024 GRADE: A
dennisschwartzreviews.com