MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Brute power
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an epic exploration of the post war immigrant experience in the US
CONCRETE POETRY: Adrien Brody as Laszlo Toth in The Brutalist
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
The Brutalist (18)
Directed by Brady Corbet
ALTHOUGH it isn’t made clear, the film’s title refers to the architectural style of the brutalist movement which emerged in the 1950s but can equally allude to the post-war immigrant experience in the US as they pursued the American Dream.
You may think it aptly describes the film’s brutal length at just over three-and-a half-hours with a 15-minute intermission built in. Surprisingly it does not feel as long as it is.
Directed by Brady Corbet who co-wrote it with Mona Fastvold, the drama follows fictitious Hungarian Jewish architect Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody), a Holocaust survivor who escapes Europe in 1947 and emigrates to the US to start a new life. He is waiting to be joined by his wife Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) who is trapped in eastern Europe with his niece Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy).
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