Joe Alwyn

The Brutalist (2024): A Fantastically Constructed Three Plus Hours at the Cinema

Posted on by Jack Drees

“The Brutalist” is directed by Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader, Vox Lux) and stars Adrien Brody (King Kong, The Pianist), Felicity Jones (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, On the Basis of Sex), Guy Pearce (Memento, Iron Man 3), Joe Alwyn (The Favourite, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), Raffey Cassidy (Tomorrowland, Vox Lux), Stacy Martin (Vox Lux, All the Money in the World), Emma Laird (Mayor of Kingstown, A Haunting in Venice), Isaach de Bankolé (24, Black Panther), and Alessandro Nivola (Jurassic Park III, Amsterdam). This film is about a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor’s struggle to achieve the American dream.

“The Brutalist” was a movie that I have been trying to get to for nearly a couple months at this point. Unfortunately, I just never had the time to sit down for three and a half hours and commit to it. Thankfully, an opportunity opened up recently, and I went out of my way to a theater further away from home, because I wanted to get this movie under my belt before the Academy Awards. After all, despite the body’s questionable practices and relevancy, the film did win Best Picture – Drama at another awards show, the Golden Globes. Well that, and quite frankly, I was in much more of a rush to watch “The Brutalist,” instead of “Emilia Perez,” which won Best Picture – Musical or Comedy in the same show. That movie seems to have gotten a lot of praise during the 2024-2025 awards season. However, I have not seen as many people outside the core voting bodies share the kindest words about the film.

When you make a commitment to any movie, it has to be worth your money and time. That last part is extremely emphasized with a more sizable runtime. Thankfully, “The Brutalist” is worth both of those things.

Most of the movies I have reviewed on Scene Before are from the 2010s or 2020s, therefore I have not had the opportunity to talk about many titles that include intermissions. “The Brutalist,” released at the end of 2024, is one exception. An intermission itself is not a core part of a movie experience if you break it down, but in this case I thought it added to a nice, throwback feel.

That said, having an intermission introduces a problem that stood out to me, which is that if I had to pick one half of the movie to watch over the other, I would pick the second half almost every time. Granted, I understand why the first half exists. Without it, the movie would not work the way it does. But I found the second half to be better-paced. I found the characters to be at their most compelling. I thought the acting and atmosphere was upped a notch. I felt more passive watching the first half and more active in the second.

The movie was shot on 35mm, which for the record, is still a format used in modern movies. Last year’s “Twisters” is one such example. The film also used VistaVision, which I arguably did not experience to the fullest given how I watched the movie on digital projection. But the film itself, kind of like another Adrien Brody project, “The Artist,” has all these little touches of older cinema. The movie had all sorts of imperfections from frame to frame.

This movie also makes great use of color, or lack thereof in some cases. The film is not necessarily the most vivid, but despite the film’s grainy, dusty look, there are certain colorful objects in the film that stood out to me. There is a shot where two characters are hugging in front of a green bus that pops. This film also has really effective use of beige. There are some shots inside of a home where that color stands out. It is the little things that catch my attention in this picture. Speaking of shots, the opening of this film is one of the trippiest I remember seeing in recent memory, where we see an upside down shot of Lady Liberty. That part of the movie is ingrained in my memory not only for its unconventional yet immersive shot choice, but it is just the start of what “The Brutalist” stands for as a work of art.

When you break down “The Brutalist,” it is a representation of one’s journey and struggle to achieve the American dream. The movie starts off with a staple of that dream with the main character, László Tóth, a holocaust survivor and an architect, coming into Ellis Island, set for a better life. His journey comes with obstacles, such as leaving people he knows behind or sometimes taking jobs one can consider painstaking or filth-inducing.

I also find it interesting how the film is set in the 1940s to the 1980s. I did not see this at a festival or a special screening, but if I had a chance to talk to the film’s writers, Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold, I would want to know if they think the idea of “the American dream” is still alive. This film does represent the continued aspirations of the American dream in regard to seeking a better life, but it begs the question as to whether the American dream is a thing of the past, or if it is still obtainable in the 2020s.

Pacing-wise, this film sometimes reminded me of “Blade Runner.” The film is very much a slow-burn. Combine that with a three and a half hour runtime, you have a recipe for a movie that I imagine will turn off a fair amount of the general audience upon their first impression. I say this because there are a lot of pauses between the characters’ utterances of dialogue. Very rarely do the characters actively respond to another individual right away. I thought this direction choice sometimes worked and tied into the film’s atmosphere, but at other times, was a bit distracting.

I liked Felicity Jones before watching “The Brutalist,” but she is a different kind of great in this film. She is not in the entire movie. But she ends up taking the spotlight in every scene towards the end. As the film culminates, she unleashes the most unhinged supporting performance I have seen in a 2024 film. I have not seen “Emilia Perez” so I cannot comment on Zoe Saldana’s performance. I am aware Saldana won the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars, but if I had to cast a vote, it would be for Felicity Jones because of not only how she represents her own pain, but also her urgency to relieve the pain of those around her. By the end of this film, I left thinking that I would do anything to avoid a screaming match with this individual. I did not know Jones had that kind of power in her.

In the end, “The Brutalist” is not my favorite movie of 2024, but it is one of the more well-crafted films of that year. Part of it has to do with the production design, but also the solid direction from Brady Corbet that has also led to excellent performances from actors like Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. Breaking this film down, I found the film to pick up a bit in the second half compared to the first, but I still found the film as a whole to be worth watching. I know an Adrien Brody-led three and a half hour movie with an intermission set decades prior to its release shot on VistaVision sounds like the most pretentious movie that has ever pretentiated in the history of pretentiousness. Trust me, if you give it your time, you might enjoy it. The acting is great. The directing is even better. The story is one I think many people, especially those living in the United States, can relate to. I am going to give “The Brutalist” a 7/10.

“The Brutalist” is now playing in theaters and is available to rent or buy on VOD.

Thanks for reading this review! Coming soon, I will be sharing my thoughts on “I’m Still Here,” “Riff Raff,” “Nickel Boys,” and “Mickey 17.” If you want to see these reviews and more from Scene Before, follow the blog either with an email or WordPress account! Also, check out the official Facebook page! I want to know, did you see “The Brutalist?” What did you think about it? Or, should more movies coming out today have intermissions? Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!

Kinds of Kindness (2024): Kinds of Forgettable…

Posted on by Jack Drees

“Kinds of Kindness” is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Poor Things) and stars Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man, Poor Things), Jesse Plemons (Civil War, Game Night), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man, Platoon), Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Drive-Away Dolls), Hong Chau (The Menu, Downsizing), Joe Alwyn (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Catherine Called Birdy), Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World: Dominion, Elemental), and Hunter Schafer (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Euphoria). This film contains three separate stories starring the same cast that all share loose connections.

“Kinds of Kindness” is one of those movies that is going to get several butts in seats. Well, maybe not everyone’s butt. That said, if you are of a certain audience, chances are this movie got your attention. After all, some of the people who are connected to this film have are hot off the recent award circuit. “Poor Things” dominated several bodies last year, earning a few Oscar wins, including Emma Stone’s beyond deserved accolade for Best Actress. It was also nominated for a multitude of Critics Choice Awards, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and even a couple SAGs. When they dropped the trailer for this movie earlier this year, and I saw the names “Emma Stone” and “Yorgos Lanthimos” attached, my first thoughts were “Wow! That was fast! I did not think they’d crank out another movie that quickly!” And given how recently “Poor Things” won me over, I was excited to see what this dynamic duo could do with a film like this. But there was something missing from the marketing… I did not really know what the movie is about.

Now, for those who did not see this movie, I am going to try my best to not give a ton of info away, but this film is three stories all done by the same cast. They all somewhat relate in tone and theme, but they also have their differences. This was something I knew going in, but I found out from someone else who saw the movie. I did not get this from any marketing, any trailers, nothing. And as much as I do not want to spoil the whole movie, I think there are some people who would at least like to know what to expect going in…

Now I was able to remember this information going into the theater, but as for the movie itself, it is not as memorable. In fact, some of the parts I do remember, failed to win me over.

I want to be real with you… “Kinds of Kindness” is one of the worst film experiences I had in the past several years. To be clear, I do not think it is even close to being the worst movie of said years. Granted it is not exactly good… But during my screening, my projector had multiple instances of technical difficulties. So much so that the theater had to issue passes for a free screening. But not only did I have a bad experience by watching a movie that I did not enjoy for the material that the filmmakers made, but it was sullied even more by outside factors. I cannot even tell you precisely how this movie, and by that I mean the third movie within the movie, ends. Sure, I saw how it ended. But this film was so slow, so uninteresting, and yet, out of nowhere, my theatrical experience reached a lowest low to make an unmemorable ending even worse.

I just want to remind you all, this movie and its three stories star recent Oscar winner Emma Stone. Her efforts in this movie are not quite to the level of a Razzies nominee. Not even close. In fact, I would say everyone in this film is rather competent, but there is a reason why this film is releasing in the middle of the year as opposed to the end of the year. It feels really weird to say this because I have a couple Yorgos Lanthimos films under my belt, and every other one I have seen, I feel like he is getting the best performances out of each one of his actors. While the actors in this film do a good job, none of the performances this time around feel Oscar-worthy. At best, they meet some gap between an okay performance in a big budget summer blockbuster and an arthouse performance that would be considered for a nominee but is missing some sort of spark.

Admittedly, some of the stories from a conceptual perspective, are intriguing. I like the ideas for all three of these stories, but by the time they get to the end of each story, it falters at some point. Not only are they similarly titled by having “R.M.F.” in each name, but they do feel somewhat similar to each other when it comes to the execution. Each one delivers a somewhat sinister vibe and features some sequences where part of me wants to look away because they are not always easy to watch. Interestingly enough, “Kinds of Kindness” just so happens to be paced in such a way that makes it not always easy to watch. Talk about a slogfest. What can be worse than one bad movie? Ha! I know! Three bad movies in one bad movie! It’s bad movie-ception!

I admire each short story for having some daring scenes and moments, and they did catch my attention, but that is one of the only compliments I can truly give this film. It pushes some boundaries and those scenes stood out to me. There are also some scenes that turned me off, perhaps to a degree where I almost wanted to stop watching the movie altogether, so this movie has a balance of its positive and negative moments.

The way that these mini-stories are structured, the way they are written, the way they are brought to life, they should to some degree be able to stick with me after leaving the theater. But in all honesty, they were not able to do that. If anything, these stories were amusing to watch. I think there are a couple scenes that are very well directed and realized, but it does not make up for all the other moments that made me roll my eyes. Is this film incompetently made? No. It is just one that did not work for me. For all I know, this could win some people over, but I am not one of those people. This is the kind of movie that was going for a reaction, and I was definitely able to give one during some scenes. But I wish said reaction was slightly different sometimes. Honestly, if you were to ask me to recommend a Yorgos Lanthimos movie to watch, I will just recommend the film he did prior to this one, “Poor Things.” It’s fun, it is comedic, and a wacky vision brought to life. And unlike this recent outing, “Poor Things” left me thinking a bit more after leaving the cinema. The only thought on my mind after leaving “Kinds of Kindness” is that I never want to watch the movie again.

In the end, while I did enjoy “Kinds of Kindness” a bit more than “The Favourite,” it was a rather off and on experience for me where some of the turnoffs tended to stand out. Honestly, if you are looking for a recent movie from a filmmaker with an auteurist approach containing a few decent short stories, I think Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” is a slightly better watch. Granted it is not a perfect movie either. It is far from Wes Anderson’s best work, but it definitely has its moments. “Kinds of Kindness” likely has an audience. It had some laughs, it has good production design, and respectable direction. But it does not have the oomph for me to call the movie great, and the experience is only worsened by several moments that left me questioning why I was watching them or why they were even put in the film in the first place. I am going to give “Kinds of Kindness” a 5/10.

“Kinds of Kindness” is now playing in select theaters and as of writing this post in 2024, the film will available on Hulu Friday, August 30th.

Thanks for reading this review! If you enjoyed this review, I have more coming! Stay tuned for my thoughts on “The Instigators,” “Sing Sing,” “Borderlands,” “Skincare,” and “My Old Ass.” If you want to see these reviews and more from Scene Before, follow the blog either with an email or WordPress account! Also, check out the official Facebook page! I want to know, did you see “Kinds of Kindness?” What did you think about it? Or, what is a movie that grossed you out so much that you cannot appreciate it? Let me know down below! Scene Before is your click to the flicks!