The Brutalist

Brady Corbet’s multi Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning, bold, ambitious American epic offers a vast canvas of post-war American life.

  • Director

    Brady Corbet

  • With

    Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce

  • USA-UK-Hungary 2024. 215min (including 15min interval)

  • IMAX with laser

  • Certificate

    18

The new film by Brady Corbet, the director of The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, is an audacious and enrapturing American post-war epic. Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth arrives in America in 1947 with nothing but his name. Navigating the poverty and degradation of a new life, his sole beacon of hope is the letters he exchanges with his wife, who remains stranded in Europe. But he soon crosses paths with a wealthy magnate who can potentially change his fortunes and offer him a path to the American Dream.

Novelistic and richly detailed, Corbet's portrait of Tóth is a compelling excavation into the immigrant experience, and a potent rumination on the dark connections between capitalism, power, trauma and art. Beautifully constructed - like one of Tóth's own vertiginous creations - The Brutalist soars; from Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce's magnetic performances to Lol Crawley's stunning VistaVision cinematography and Daniel Blumberg's mesmerising score.

Viewing the film on IMAX with Laser or 70mm (at BFI Southbank) further emphasises the dazzling grandeur and overwhelming majesty of Corbet's masterpiece, justifying its status as an instant classic.

Contains scenes of sexual assault and drug use.