From the magazine

It’s no Citizen Kane: The Brutalist reviewed

Brady Corbet's much hyped new epic is engrossing enough, but it did frequently feel familiar

Deborah Ross
Adrien Brody is terrific as architect Laszlo Toth in classy potboiler The Brutalist  © UNIVERSAL PICTURES / COURTESY OF A24
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 25 January 2025
issue 25 January 2025

The Brutalist, which is a fictional account of a Jewish-Hungarian architect in postwar America, has attracted a great deal of Oscar buzz and has been described as ‘monumental’ and ‘a masterpiece’ and ‘an inversion of the American dream’ and ‘up there with Citizen Kane’. It’s three and a half hours (including a 15-minute intermission) and while the running time isn’t an issue, as it is engrossing enough, it did frequently feel familiar.

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