The Brutalist

Verdict

An ambitious, oversized architectural epic with striking visual design, a commanding score, and a strong central performance. It’s most rewarding if you like austere prestige dramas that turn the American Dream into something bruising, ironic, and morally compromised.

Best for

• Viewers who like long, immersive historical dramas
• Fans of visually formal, director-driven cinema
• People interested in immigration, ambition, and patronage stories
• Audiences who appreciate a bleak take on the American Dream

Skip if

• You want a brisk, plot-driven drama
• You dislike slow-burn films with an abrasive tone
• You prefer emotionally warm or tidy storytelling
• You’re impatient with movies that prioritize atmosphere and scale over easy catharsis

Overview

The Brutalist is the kind of movie that announces itself as a monument and then keeps revealing cracks in the stone. It has real force as a postwar immigrant story, a study of artistic ambition, and a critique of American prosperity built on power, taste, and exploitation. The production design, cinematography, and score do a lot of heavy lifting, and the film often feels physically enormous in the best way.

Worth noting

What makes it stick is the tension between grandeur and discomfort. It’s less interested in inspiration than in the price of being “made” by America, and it keeps returning to the idea that success can be another form of submission. The performances are strong across the board, especially when the film shifts from aspiration to domination.

Bottom line

It’s not a perfectly smooth experience, and some viewers will find its structure and tonal pivots blunt or overdetermined. But as a piece of serious, old-school cinematic ambition, it’s hard to ignore. Even when it frustrates, it does so on a scale that feels rare now.

Top Letterboxd reviews

diego andaluz (4★) · 22934 likes

To anyone who thinks the ending is too simplistic and attempts to tie things up in a nice bow, do you really think “it is the destination, not the journey” was meant to be taken at face value? Zsofia—like much of America trying to sell how great the “American Dream” is—attempts to package Laszlo’s life in a nice, digestible speech with a pleasant ending. In an abrupt tonal shift, the complex, grand, uncomfortable atmosphere of the previous three hours is… more

ConnorEatsPants (3.5★) · 21926 likes

i had to use the restroom and walked back in during the first Handjob scene. was really awkward. Then like 15 mins later there was an intermission and I didn’t need to go to the restroom anymore so i played angry birds on my phone. Had to use the restroom again during the second half of the film (i had a large soda). Walked back into the theater during the surprise 2nd Handjob scene.

demi adejuyigbe · 15358 likes

the first half is terrific– reminded me of watching a really good 90/2000s biopic– as is the score and cinematography through the entire thing, but the second half… i don’t know. it’s like watching an impressive floor routine that ends in the running man. what were you going for. why’d you end with that. cannot stress enough that I looooved the first half though, even the opening credits made me almost gasp with joy. bowled over by the production itself, too- shot in 31 days for under class="h-100 apple-font-system"0 million? how the fuck?

marty (5★) · 12854 likes

This made me want to light a cigarette and stare at a wall for two hours. Five stars.

júlia (4.5★) · 11673 likes

i simply cannot accept the fact that lászló tóth isn't a real person... i just got tár'd again

Themes

American Dream, immigration, postwar Europe, architectural ambition, patronage and power, art versus commerce, assimilation, marriage under pressure

Topics

prestige drama, historical epic, immigrant story, architectural aesthetics, American Dream critique, class tension, slow burn, period piece, bleak tone, art and power