The Brutalist ★★★★★

I heard of this film back when I was in New York for Christmas, and they were doing exclusive screenings of this film on 35mm and 70mm prints, which I tried to get into the waitlist for a ticket and unfortunately could not get any since everyone in the country was trying to see this film months before its theater release. I then decided I would watch this film at home whenever it is available since I saw the lengthy runtime (they do give an intermission however) and I was not so sure I could fully enjoy this for such a long time. After seeing it at home and being in shock with the visuals and story, I can confidently say if this ever hit a premium format for a re-release, I would be first in line for such a thing since I would enjoy seeing this on a big screen (and wouldn't get bored either)! The story follows an architect named Laszlo Toth who moves to America to escape his home country during a war. He is soon recognized by a man who wants him to work on a personal project of his, and we see his journey throughout the film of his life in America along with the development of the project. I won't go any further for the synopsis since the story covers a lot of ground and I don't want to give too much away, but I will say this was easily one of my favorite movies off the Oscar list. The main thing here was the cinematography, as there were numerous wide angle shots throughout the film showing complete architectural monuments that were meant to juxtapose the events in the film. The camera work especially during the first twenty minutes of the film was done very well to set the tone for the entire film, and there were many cases throughout the film of long shots that usually were symbols for events in the story. I also liked how the pacing of the first half of the film was kind of fast whereas the second half slowed down a bit (but not too much to where it was boring) with more shots of architecture and in some cases the various landscapes, which made for some very beautiful scenes that I was in awe of. There are scenes that take place in another country while Laszlo is trying to get materials for a project, and that might be one of the best scenes of the entire film where it shows the widest shots capturing entire mountains of granite and stone which I thought was so beautiful. I had my doubts of course about the story and the pacing seeing as the film is 3 and a half hours long, but as I mentioned before the time does fly and the characters/story are developed really well throughout to where the ending will leave an impact for a while after watching it. I won't say much more since it is easy to get spoilers for this film and its ending, but I recommend everyone should watch it for the cinematography alone and the story will not disappoint.