The Brutalist

Yes this movie is brutal in many ways. I had high hopes for it in the first half but the ending ruined it for me. It’s a brutal 3.5 hours long (I felt that at least an hour could have been edited out easily), filled with symbolism. If trying to pick out & connect symbolism is your thing, you’ll like this movie (especially if you don’t like questions answered for you). It started as a really interesting story that’s not told as often- a survivor of the Holocaust rebuilding his life in America. As an architect, he’s influenced by the brutalist nature of what he endured and it’s reflected in his designs. The sex scenes are brutal, many of the characters were brutal, the way these refugees were treated was brutal but the most brutal was the randomly rushed ending that hardly made sense to me. The acting was superb by Brody, Pearce & Johnson. I’m not sure it’s fair to rate watch checks on this because it was SO long but I’ll condense to say 3 watch checks. Ryan would have fallen asleep for certain (I almost did). The cinematography was pretty great in this movie- so if possible, see it on the big screen.