The Brutalist - Movie Review | Venice Film Festival 2024 | A HUGE Potential Awards Contender

hey up everyone so continuing the Bennis Film Festival coverage today's movie I'm discussing on the channel is the latest film from Brady corette the man who gave us Vox luxs a very underseen and underappreciated film in my opinion his latest film is a sprawling drama called the brutalist which Chronicles the Journey of a hungarian-born Jewish architect called llo Toth played in this film by Adrien bro who immigrates to the United States in 1947 initially forced to toil in poverty llo lands a contract which will change the course of his life over the next 30 Years the Brewer list is a project that has been seven years in the making for Brady Corvette and seemed like a massive gamble its runtime did seem quite daunting when it was officially announced that this film was 3 and 1 half hours long put that into context that's like just as long as Martin sces killers of the flower moon but corette isn't no Martin scolesi okay he doesn't have the career or the cache that scolesi brings to a picture so a three and a half hour film on 70 mm about an immigrant architect did seem quite ambitious but rest assured the brutalist is a spectacular accomplishment from Brady corbette and absolutely justifies its runtime the bruist is one of those movies where just a few minutes into it you're already aware that you're watching something very beautiful and quite special I've seen a lot of people at Venice labeling this film as a masterpiece I personally don't think it is a masterpiece I think it is a fantastic film an exceptional one at that but um I did think that the first half of this film was stronger and more consistent than the second second half there was some things in the second half that didn't quite come together for me but again I still think it is an incredible uh accomplishment from Bry corette and I do think it is going to be a huge player when it comes to the Oscars so yeah I did want to discuss it the first half of this film sees llo trying to find his way in America from landing at Ellis Island to staying with his cousin Atilla in his furniture shop in Philadelphia where llo helps his cousin to Custom Design and renovate a library for a wealthy high-end client called Harrison Lee Von buan who's played by Guy pier and lzo does such a good job that bamban tracks him down and asks him if he'd be willing to design and build a center for community and activities in doy toown then there's an actual 15-minute built-in intermission and the second half sees llo reunited with his wife Ezra bet played by fisty Jones as well as his niece uh Sophia who's played by Rafi Cassidy the brutalist of the title actually refers to the style of architecture that llo is known for it's a style of architecture that I'm actually quite familiar with because there are a lot of brutalist designed buildings in London like the barin center the southpac center and uh the National Theater as well everything about this film feels so massive in scope the building that llo designs for vuran is enormous and the story itself spans across several decades but it is actually quite an intimate story about a man and his family trying to make a life for themselves in America America but it's done in such epic fashion party was concerned that this was going to be like a very slow super serious hard-hitting drama about you know characters that have survived the Holocaust and our immigrants and while there is certainly like hering topics in this film like poverty and sexual abuse and famine um I was taken back by how um hopeful and engaging the film actually was even with a three and half hour run Time The Script I thought was fantastic BR corette and Mona fastfold screenplay is so intelligently written and the dialogue is so smart without being pretentious what really surprised me about this film was just how humorous it was in places like there's a very dry comedic sensibility that's peppered throughout the screenplay but never was it boring like vanan says to llo I find our conversations quite intellectually stimulating and I have to say the conversations in this movie were very aging they had a lot of interesting things to say about Jewish identity white privilege and the Immigrant experience also this film looks Exquisite like it is a rare treat to see a film these days shot on 70 mm and with such Artistry this is genuine one of the prettiest looking movies you will see all year Director of Photography L Crowley really understood the importance and value of lighting in space especially given that the film is about uh brutalist uh architecture like it's really a applicable to not just the scenes with the buildings but just like the scenes in general like the opening scene of this film is so arresting uh like you're not actually quite sure where you are at first but it's when we're introduced to llo and he's in this space it's very dark and dank and cramped and crowded and he's trying to get out of it it almost feels like a pilgrimage of swords and then finally he gets towards the light and lo and behold he is in New York and we see Lady Liberty greeting him and also the score just swells to this beautiful climax it's it's so good like it's such a exciting way to start off a film yeah the score by Daniel blumberg is just wow but yeah where the film loses a few points to me was with the second half there's a moment which I'm not going to spoil for you but it involves one of the characters taking a very dark turn which up until that point feels incredibly out of character for this person like I I'll say this I certainly didn't see it coming and the con on of these actions aren't really resolved like there is a confrontational scene about it but then the character kind of bolts and they go looking for them and it just kind of like Fizzles out into nothing like we don't actually know what happens to them in fact the ending itself had a few unanswered questions things that were left unresolved or just kind of open-ended for the audience to decide I found it frustrating that there were no answers to some of the questions that I had and yeah it was also frustrating that for a film that just starts so so strong uh didn't quite all come together in the end I was frustrated that it didn't quite stick The Landing but despite that it still doesn't detract from the fact that the rest of the film was so good pretty much every Department in this film crushed it all right I'm being super delicate with my oscar statue today because he's already been broken twice this trip so don't want it to happen a third time so I'm going to pop him down but yeah do I think that the brutalist is going to be an Oscar's player God where do I begin because every Department in this film is worthy of praise and accolades as soon as I came out the brutalist I had to readjust all of my predictions on the awards expert app to include the brutalist now that I've seen it best picture makes absolute sense it is a beautiful film it's topical it's all about the struggles of being an immigrant and the American dream it's about family it's about creativity it's about Legacy but yeah it really does feel like your classic best picture type nominee Fred cette definitely seems like a credible Contender for best director I know he's quite young I think he's only like 36 and sometimes like they tend to go for like the more Seas directors in the director's Branch but this is very confident direction from Brady cobette there's a lot of very impressive like one takes throughout a lot of like symbolic visuals with like lots of shots of roads and train tracks sort of symbolizing laslo's journey of life that he's on when it comes to performances I have definitely been sleeping on Adrien Brody even though he's not had a nomination since his first win for The Pianist what back in what 2003 we need to entertain the idea that Adrien Brody could be a two-time best actor winning Oscar recipient like it could happen the performance is that good okay he owns this film he lives in the role of llo okay he breathes so much life and fire into this part and if you want to talk like box checking there is so much here for him to work with cuz not only is he doing like an impressive Hungarian accent he does it all here he cries he screams he's funny in places he's sympathetic he gets one moment of transformational makeup right at the end of the film his character is a holocaust Survivor and a heroin user he's also got mag magificent screen Partners here to work with with Felicity Jones and Guy Pierce who are both equally worthy of supporting actor and actress nominations themselves I feel very confident saying that at the very least Adrien Brody will be nominated but I also think he is a Challenger for the win watch out Comm Domingo watch out Daniel Craig okay is he's not going to go down without a fight like I said ficity Jones is marvelous in this okay there's so many scenes where your heart goes out to her she's got herself a few Oscar clippy moments I'd say and yeah we could be looking at a second nomination for her and gu has a substantial supporting role in this okay he has a fair bit of screen time and he's also playing a character with a lot of Personality okay he's very like overzealous and peacocky a very charismatic performance from Guy Pierce and you know what Guy Pierce has never had an Oscar nomination okay we need to rectify that this is probably the role that's going to get him his first oskan on the supporting actor honestly when it comes to the brutalist this is the type of film that feels like the Irishman or the favorites you know the type of film that the academy will just all get on board with and give 10 plus nominations to I feel like um the brutalist has a very good chance of getting like 10 Oscar nominations I can just see it getting nominated across the board in like the crafts and the texts yeah screenplay costumes hair makeup editing oh my God the editing in this is fantastic cinematography of course sound the score oh my God the score could be a challenger and of course production design I mean this film is about architecture and some of the sets in this are like set pieces in and of themselves it would be wild if this film wasn't the big Oscar Contender that I think it is going to be because I don't know how a film like this goes un acknowledged it Tis so many boxes and is just a Showcase of Excellence across the board so yeah I'm expecting the brutalist to be a huge Contender when it comes to the Oscars 2025 all right then shall we ask them three questions firstly would I watch it again absolutely if I had a spare three and a half hours to give at the Venice Film Festival I'd go watch this again right now it's that good question two do I recommend it for you guys I know a three and a half hour period drama won't be to everyone's taste but if you a fan of like big award season contenders then know you're definitely going to want to check this one out it's just phenomenal across the board performances Direction writing crafts and texts like yeah it's a real Triumph so yeah I do recommend it and third question what score to give out of 10 I am simply in awe of the ambition and scale of the brutalist okay is a film that shines in so many aspects and uh while I don't think it reaches like greatness I think the first half is stronger than the second half um not all of it quite came together for me I'm still like so impressed by what he's managed to pull off so I'm going to give the brutalist a score of 8.5 out of 10 but as always guys it is just one Block's opinion I'd love to hear from you are you excited for the brute List have you seen it yet if you have what did you make of this film do you think it's going to be a player when it comes to the Oscars if so in what categories what you have to say about this film let me know in the comments section down below if you want more movie TV and Oscars R content don't forget to click subscribe please do help me get to my end of your goal getting to 10,000 subscribers and if you want to stay up to date with all my Venice Film Festival coverage be sure to follow me on the socials you can find links to all of these in that video description down below and as always thank you guys so much for watching for more things related to movies TV the Oscars and popcorn culture I'm luk hfield and I'll see you next time