You’ve probably heard the whispers or seen the daunting runtime. 215 minutes. That is three and a half hours of your life. Honestly, in a world where we can barely sit through a two-minute TikTok, asking an audience to endure a film longer than Titanic feels like a personal attack. But then you see The Brutalist, and suddenly, the clocks stop.
It’s not just a movie. It’s a monolith.
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When the lights went down at the Venice Film Festival, nobody really knew if Brady Corbet—a director known for being "difficult" and uncompromising—could actually pull this off. By the time the 15-minute intermission hit, the air in the room had changed. People weren't just watching a story about an architect; they were watching Adrien Brody basically reclaim his throne as the most soulful actor of his generation.
The Brutalist Adrien Brody: A Role He Was "Born To Play"
Let’s be real for a second. Adrien Brody has had a weird career. After becoming the youngest person to win Best Actor for The Pianist, he sort of drifted into the Wes Anderson universe and did some action flicks that didn't quite land. We almost forgot how haunting he can be.
In The Brutalist, he plays László Tóth. He’s a Hungarian-Jewish architect, a Bauhaus-trained visionary who survives the Holocaust and lands in Pennsylvania in 1947 with absolutely nothing. He’s got that goulash-thick accent and a ribcage that looks like it's about to poke through his skin. It’s a performance that feels less like acting and more like an exorcism.
Brody himself has said he felt a deep, ancestral connection to the role. His mother, the famous photographer Sylvia Plachy, fled Hungary during the 1956 revolution. You can see that shared trauma in every frame. When László looks at the Statue of Liberty—which Corbet shoots upside down, by the way—it’s not a moment of cliché hope. It’s a moment of total, terrifying disorientation.
Why the 70mm VistaVision Actually Matters
You’ll hear film nerds geeking out over the fact that this was shot on VistaVision. If you aren't a gearhead, that basically means the image is massive, sharp, and has a texture that digital cameras just can't mimic. It’s the same format they used for Vertigo and The Searchers.
Why does this matter to you? Because the film is about scale.
László is commissioned by a wealthy, borderline-sociopathic industrialist named Harrison Lee Van Buren (played by a terrifyingly good Guy Pearce) to build a massive community center. The "Brutalist" style—all raw concrete and hard angles—is meant to be a slap in the face to the soft, picket-fence aesthetic of 1950s America. The 70mm format makes the buildings feel like they are crushing the characters. It’s claustrophobic and expansive at the same time.
The Intermission: A Relic of the Past?
Midway through, the screen just... stops. A 15-minute timer appears.
Some critics called it pretentious. I think it’s a mercy. But more than that, it’s a structural choice. The first half is about the "Enigma of Arrival"—László’s struggle with heroin addiction, his work as a laborer, and his desperate attempt to bring his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) over from Europe.
The second half is a different beast entirely. It’s about the cost of the American Dream. When Erzsébet finally arrives, she’s not the wife he remembered. She’s wheelchair-bound, suffering from the physical aftereffects of the camps, and she's arguably sharper and more cynical than he is. Their relationship isn't a Hollywood romance; it’s a business partnership forged in a furnace.
What the Reviews Aren't Telling You
If you look at the early buzz from the 2025 Oscars, you’ll see words like "masterpiece" thrown around. But is it perfect? Kinda, but also no.
The movie is messy. The ending, which skips forward to the 1970s and 80s, feels like a fever dream that some people find alienating. It doesn't give you the "feel-good" immigrant success story. It suggests that to build something truly great in America, you have to sell a piece of your soul to people who don't even like you.
Guy Pearce’s character is a prime example. He’s a patron of the arts, but he’s also a bigot who treats László like a talented pet. The tension between the architect and the benefactor is where the movie gets its "brutal" name. It’s a power struggle that ends in a way that left half the theater in Venice gasping.
Quick Facts: The Brutalist at a Glance
- Director: Brady Corbet (who won Best Director at Venice).
- Runtime: 215 Minutes (includes a mandatory 15-minute intermission).
- Format: Shot on 35mm, finished in 70mm VistaVision.
- Lead Performance: Adrien Brody’s first major Oscar-caliber role in decades.
- Release Date: Limited release started December 2024, wide release in early 2025.
Is It Actually Worth Your Time?
Honestly, if you hate long movies, you’ll hate this. There’s no way around it. But if you want to see what happens when a director is given a relatively small budget ($8 million, which is nothing for a period epic) and total creative freedom, you have to watch it.
The movie captures the immigrant experience better than almost anything I've seen because it refuses to be sentimental. It shows the dirt. The addiction. The way a name change or a religious conversion is often the price of admission to the "American Dream."
How to experience it correctly:
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- Find a 70mm screen. If you live in a city like New York, London, or Los Angeles, do not watch this on a regular digital screen. The VistaVision print is 4 miles long and weighs 259 pounds. The physical presence of the film adds to the weight of the story.
- Don't skip the intermission. It’s part of the pacing. Go get a drink, stretch your legs, and let the first half marinate.
- Watch the background. Corbet uses real newsreel footage and deep historical research. The architecture isn't just a backdrop; it’s a character.
The legacy of The Brutalist Adrien Brody performance will likely be compared to Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. It’s that level of intensity. It’s a reminder that cinema can still be big, bold, and incredibly uncomfortable.
If you're planning to go, grab your tickets for a 70mm showing as soon as they drop; these screenings are becoming legendary for a reason. Check the theater listings for the "VistaVision Engagement" to ensure you're getting the full, uncompressed experience.