The Brutalist
Review: In my ongoing task to watch ever Oscar nominated film, I found myself at the theater for a few hours to take in ‘The Brutalist.’ This is an extremely well made film that earned its 10 Oscar nominations. The performances from Adrien Brody (nominated), Felicity Jones (nominated), Guy Pearce (nominated), & Joe Alwyn (London Boy) were all very good. The direction from Brady Corbet (likely winner) was great. And it really earned all its other nominations for Original Screenplay, Original Score, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, & of course, Best Picture. Well the film definitely contained some scenes that I didn’t personally find necessary, it was a very well done film, though not one I will personally revisit.
High: The idea of an intermission during a film was odd to me. I was skeptical. But it was great. I got up, used the bathroom, refilled my drink, & still had nine minutes left to check my phone when I got back to my seat. I don’t mind movies with long runtimes (3 hrs & 15 min plus the 15 minute intermission), but it really made the runtime feel less daunting being broken up into near halves. I hope more movies implore this in the future. Though it was a little awkward getting up and walking out of the theater because it was just me & one other group. Which takes me to my…
Low: I realize recently my lows have been more rants about the industry & society than the films themselves. We’re doing one of those again. The group of four teenage guys in the film with me were incredibly inconsiderate. I really honestly don’t mind if people check their phones discreetly in a film, though I personally avoid it if possible. But these guys were straight up scrolling TikTok & Snapchat (I could just tell none of them had game anyways so idk what they were doing on Snapchat) during the film, holding their phones up. They were whispering (again doesn’t bother me in small doses, but it was constant) and worst of all were the farts. I’m not joking. I think it was the same one of them over and over. Four times during the first half. They jokingly apologized to me about it during the intermission & I was very nice. And then SEVEN more loud farts during the second half of the movie. This is a slow film that is mostly just dialogue, so it could be heard in the near empty theater. And after every single one, the whole group would cackle & snicker. Like grow up. I don’t mind fart jokes, but it really wasn’t funny after the first one. I was trying to not get irritated but it was incredibly frustrating. I didn’t confront them because I didn’t want to have to beat them up & lose my AMC Stubs A-List membership & I didn’t report it to the staff because it would’ve been obvious who it was. I say all this to say, if you act like this in the movie theater, be better. Anyways, ‘The Brutalist’ was good.
Rating: 8/10
