“THE BRUTALIST” (2024, 215 min., directed by Brady Corbet)
“The Brutalist” is big. A three-and-a-half hour runtime, 10 Oscar nominations, overture, intermission and epilogue kind of big. The story spans decades, the characters are nauseatingly complex and the script tackles theme after thorny theme.
There’s no getting around it: “The Brutalist” is an epic in every sense of the word.
It’s also fantastic.
Read our review of Best Picture nominee “Nickel Boys”
“The Brutalist” stars Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Jewish-Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor freshly immigrated to the United States. His wife, Erzsébet, a journalist and fellow Holocaust survivor, is played by Felicity Jones. Their mute, traumatized niece, Zsófia, is played by Raffey Cassidy.
In the film’s central storyline, Tóth is hired as the architect of a massive community center by the wealthy, charming and insecure businessman Harrison Van Buren, played with smarmy flamboyance by Guy Pearce. His son, Harry, played by Joe Alwyn, serves as the waspish project manager.
Brody, Jones and Pearce have each been nominated for an Oscar for their performances. The cast is electric.
Read our review of Best Picture nominee “A Complete Unknown”
When I say that Tóth is freshly immigrated to the United States, I mean it. In fact, the film opens with Tóth on the boat to Ellis Island.
With Daniel Blumberg’s triumphant score blaring behind him, Tóth climbs from the dark bowels of the ship to the bright light of New York Harbor. Brody’s face breaks into ecstatic glee as the camera swoops over his head, landing on a shot of the Statue of Liberty turned upside down.
Welcome to America, “The Brutalist” says. The American Dream is about to be upended.
Read our review of Best Picture nominee “Anora”
There is so much in “The Brutalist” to discuss: the relationship between patron and artist, the dawn of post-war Zionism, the sexuality of artistic creation, antisemitism and capitalism, homoerotic suppression and the ambiguity of artistic intent, just to name a couple themes.
The film is a goldmine of ideas. In discussing it succinctly, it becomes necessary to pick a vein.
However, mining into the heart of “The Brutalist” here would spoil the pleasure that is discovering it for the first time. It’s a film that demands to be seen, discussed and dissected with others. It’s a film with a lasting impact. Don’t be surprised if the shadow of its upside-down Lady Liberty lingers on your mind.
“The Brutalist” is big, but trust me, it’s worth its weight in gold.
Rating: 5/5
“COMPANION” (2025, 97 min., directed by Drew Hancock)
“Companion” has the right idea: men attempting to control women is evil, wrong and prevalent as the smartphones in our pockets. It only went off the rails when writer-director Drew Hancock chose to communicate that message through the lens of a mistreated AI.
The film stars “Heretic” breakout Sophie Thatcher as Iris, the girlfriend of Josh, played by “The Boys” lead Jack Quaid. We meet the couple at the start of a lakeside getaway with a group of Josh’s friends, played by Megan Suri, Lukas Gage, Harvey Guillén and Rupert Friend.
The escapade quickly descends into delirious violence, however, when it’s revealed that one of the party guests is a robotic “companion.” The subsequent hour is a twisty, tangled exploration of relationships and ambitions gone wrong.
It’s clear what Hancock is going for. Technology has made it even easier to abuse the scales of privilege and power in relationships. The newest technological advancement to do so is AI. In theory, “Companion” tackling a toxic relationship with the latest tech is topical, sharp and intelligent.
However, society has entered a stage where the rapid development of AI is threatening the integrity of art across every medium. The film industry is especially rife with AI controversy: even “The Brutalist,” by many accounts a masterpiece awards frontrunner, has been embroiled in controversy over the use of artificial intelligence to augment the Hungarian dialogue of its two leads.
Instead of hitting the nail on the head, Hancock hammered home a point antithetical to the very medium he chose to make it.
The metaphor in “Companion” is solid – though explored far more cogently a decade ago in Alex Garland’s “Ex Machina” – but the execution is lacking. The companion is instantly posited as the hero, artificial intelligence depicted as an asset. The robot even uses adaptable vocal settings to its advantage, replicating voices of the other party guests at will throughout the film. It’s an ironic choice when “The Brutalist” is playing in a theater next door.
The disconnect between the film’s plot mechanics and thematic devices is hard to look past. “Companion” wants to be fun, hip and clever, and occasionally succeeds, but too much of it plays out along the same droll lines of better films with smarter points.
All that being said, Thatcher is a standout, just as she was in “Heretic,” and the movie is worth seeing for her performance. There are one or two jokes that are laugh-out-loud fantastic, including a hysterical deployment of “Iris” by Goo Goo Dolls. A few unexpected twists keep the movie moving.
“Companion” is fun, but don’t be fooled. It’s artificially intelligent.
Rating: 3/5
