The Brutalist: Brady Corbet’s towering epic tells the story of a Hungarian architect, a Holocaust survivor, who moves to America when at least there was some pretense that foreigners were welcome. The film unfurls over a long runtime, but it never drags, as it touches upon many elements: artistic integrity, the casual xenophobia present at the time, and the experience of being Jewish post-WWII. The protagonist is not a wholly likable man despite being particularly talented, visionary, and certainly obsessive. It’s an excellent performance by Adrien Brody, who projects the constant pain (internal and external) the man is in very well. Felicity Jones plays his wife, frail but mentally strong. Guy Pearce, as the industrialist who hires him, is also good as the stuffy, dangerously arrogant man.

The director of photography, Lol Crawley, does superb work; his framing gives the architectural structures their proper grandeur, and he moves the camera beautifully. The lighting is also exquisite. Editor JANCSÓ Dávid uses both single takes and dynamic cutting, as needed, giving the film a very diverse and lively pace. Production designer Judy Becker contributes with a very nice period recreation and a few great examples of brutalism. Composer Daniel Blumberg’s musical score is interesting and evocative.