Tropic Sprockets / The Brutalist

By Ian Brockway

“The Brutalist” written and directed by Brady Corbet is an epic character driven film on par with literature. [Showtimes and trailer at Tropiccinema.com] It is rich, comprehensive, and full of ideas. Not only is it a psychological drama of a life lived with purpose and intention, but it is also an American history lesson.

In 1940, Bauhaus trained architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) is a Hungarian immigrant on the way to America hoping to find employment. He meets his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) who gives him a job overseeing a furniture store. László meets Gordon (Isaach de Bankolé) who introduces him to jazz nightclubs and heroin.

Somehow László manages to balance the underbelly of Philadelphia and a job.

One day he gets a job designing a library for a rich family. László works very hard on the project replacing rare skylights, adding designer chairs and expensive fixtures. But Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) the right wing authoritarian patriarch arrives on site and is horrified, seeing the cherished library a sloppy mess.

László is sent away.

To make matters worse, Attila accuses László of coming on to his wife and orders him out of the living space store.

Later during a party, Harrison discovers that László has a history of fine architecture in Hungary. Harrison changes his tune and offers László a giant project: a Christian center.

This is an existential portrait of an artist up against it, pointing to nasty and brutish forces László cannot control. László succeeds not because he is skilled, he is only lucky.

With elements of “There Will Be Blood,” the paintings of Rene Magritte and “Blue Velvet”, the film is a claustrophobic and lyrical study of a vulnerable man fighting for his ideal against an Objectivist and harsh form of Industry.

It is wife Erzsébet Tóth (Felicity Jones) who saves László’s dignity in one of the film’s most visceral and raw scenes. This film, to its great credit, does not hold back.

The character of László is a hybrid of architects Paul Rudolph and Louis Kahn who worked in the Brutalist style of architecture, meaning of utilitarian design, boxy and uniform in shape. While the film is fictional, in 1933, Germany banned over 500 Jewish architects from practicing their craft and many died in concentration camps.

This is a fine portrait of both an Existential man and woman and never has Ayn Rand’s Objectivist purpose as embodied in Harrison Van Buren seemed so menacing.

The huge quarry and mountains attempt to dwarf the slender and slight frame of László Tóth with the big broken nose, but he persists, transforming the dominant male rock into non-judgmental forms.

Write Ian at [email protected]

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]