🎬 2025 Movie #13 | The Brutalist (2024) 🎥

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This blog is a personal journal of all the movies, Tv-Shows, & Games I consume during a year which enhances my overall experience. The ratings that I give are fully based on my personal preference and enjoyment at the time of watching and I'm writing spoiler-free reviews.

When it comes down to these long lenghth serious movies that tend to get a lot of praise and generally are oscar contenders, I most of the time tend to have a somewhat contrarian view. First of all, I think movies on average today are just too long. I love the 90 Minute movie format but these have become really rare these days and 100 Minutes is considered short while 110+ Minutes seems to be the average. The perfect lenght of a long solid movie for me is around 140 minutes or below (Shawshank Redemption / Paris, Texas, The Matrix,...) while everything that goes above 3 Hours tend to be too pretentious and tend to be much lower on my list (Lord Of The Rings, The Green Mile, Killers of the flower Moon, ...). If I watch these kinds of long movies, I also need to see them in the cinema as watching at home is almost a guarantee for distraction which happened last year when I viewed the new Scorcese movie which because of it ended in the worst movie experience of the year.

The Brutalist has a 3.5 Hour runtime (210+ Minutes) which includes a 15 Minute break which is build into the movie itself so they were able to set it at a point in the movie where there is a before and after where the Main Character Lazlo was alone as an Immigrant and when his family came back. I was actually up for a long movie on Monday and went alone to the cinema to go see it not having seen any trailers mainly expecting a movie that was about an immigrant in New York and architecture. So I kind of had in mind that New York in the 1920s would be the center stage along with the construction of some epic form. This however was a false idea as none of the movie aside from the opening arrival scene took place in New York.

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The Brutalist (6.6/10)

The movie is not based on a real events or characters (which would have made it a bit better for me) but was completely fictional.

Spoiler-Free Movie Plot:

"The architect László Toth leaves the European continent with his wife Erzsébet and moves to the United States where they want to make the American Dream come true. Their lives change completely when the charming industrialist Harrison Van Buren makes them a proposal. The modern project to be designed will be László's most ambitious project ever."

Basically I was underwhelmed despite the fact that the long runtime never really felt like it was dragging or getting me bored. Either I didn't get the entire plot but to me it can be summed up as an immigran that comes to the US, first works in a furniture store of a friend/family member to do a job rebuilding a personal library for a rich guy which first gets hated and later loved which brings him in a position where he can do a bigger contruction that takes many years for that same guy with a lot of personal drama inbetween that I did not relate to whatsoever.

I found the first hour to be rather boring and things after 70 minutes or so getting a bit more interesting when the Van Buren (Guy Pierce) rich guy came to find him. The 2nd part after the break when his wife was back just had too many annoying drama and weird scenes that felt totally unneeded, unrealistic and awkward at times. While I didn't hate the movie as it looked ok and the acting was good, the story also just left me with an underwhelmed meh feeling being glad when it was over with.

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For me this is one of those movies where many will like it because they are told that it is a great film and also liking it kind of validates them as part of the herd. I also see this as one of those 'Oscar Bait Movies' made properly with an eye on it knowing that it will score well there as it did get 10 Nominiations. At the same time, I'm sure that there are also many who genuinly love movies like The Brutalist as it fits their personal preference. This is one of those films that critics across the board love while the audience tends to be mixed on which shows in the different scores on metacritic.

That's not me however and I found this movie highly overrated and way too long without anything in it really that connected with me, captured me, or made me think about it weeks later still in a way that a movie like Paris, Texas did earlier this year. At the same time seeing The Brutalist in the cinema kept me away from distraction and it still was an ok experience which makes me still give it a respectable 6.6/10 as I also don't regret watching it even though I would not be able to view it at home because of the 3.5 Hour Runtime

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#	2025 Watched Movies	Score
#01	Heretic	7.8/10
#02	A Different Man	6.9/10
#03	Look Back	6.9/10
#04	Caddo Lake	7.5/10
#05	Sing Sing	6.0/10
#06	Paris, Texas	9.2/10
#07	The Greatest Night In Pop	7.2/10
#08	Sometimes I Think About Dying	7.3/10
#09	Memory Lane (De Terugreis)	6.8/10
#10	Winter In Sokcho	7.6/10
#11	On Falling	6.8/10
#12	Carry-On	6.9/10
#13	The Brutalist	6.6/10

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