The Brutalist

Charting the life of a Hungarian architect following his arrival in the US at the end of the Second World War, Brady Corbet’s magisterial drama explores the stultifying impact of collective trauma, the transformative quality of artistic endeavour and the corrosive nature of unbridled capitalism.

Escaping Nazi persecution, once-acclaimed Jewish-Hungarian architect László Tóth arrives in the US, penniless and unknown. After toiling in menial jobs, his genius is recognised by wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren. He commissions Tóth to design a colossal building in the architect’s trademark brutalist style. The fame Tóth attracts as a result of the project allows him to bring his wife and niece to the US. But for every favour granted or battle won, Tóth increasingly finds himself the subject of his employer’s whims and embittered envy. 

Brady Corbet’s third feature, like his debut The Childhood of a Leader (2015), is a wildly ambitious and wholly immersive drama: its vast scope, like the building Tóth has designed, is at once monumental and intimate. Adrien Brody’s extraordinary central performance conveys the instincts of a survivor with the sensitivity of an artist, while Felicity Jones and a career-best Guy Pearce compel as Tóth’s wife and benefactor/nemesis. A critique of the US capitalist model, a rumination on the value of art in society and an acute study of trauma, The Brutalist is as edifying as the work that Tóth so passionately strives to realise.

– Ian Haydn Smith

The screening includes a 15 minute intermission

Lol Crawley, cinematographer of The Brutalist, is the 2025 recipient of the Robby Müller Award. He will join us for a Talk about his oeuvre on Saturday 1 February. Tickets for the Talk are available through this page, or you can purchase a combined ticket for the film screening on 31 January + the Talk via this link.

Trailer

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