THE BRUTALIST Trailer: Adrien Brody Tries to Build His American Dream in Brady Corbet’s Epic

After flexing his directing chops with his daring features The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, Brady Corbet returns with an ambitious new epic. The Brutalist wowed audiences and critics when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Corbet picked up the Silver Lion for Best Director. Co-written by Corbet and his partner Mona Fastvold, it stars Adrien Brody as László Toth, a Hungarian architect who fled his country during the Nazi invasion and tries to make his mark in mid-20th Century America. Also starring is Felicity Jones as his wife who survived the concentration camps and Guy Pearce as the iron-fisted businessman who commissions (and exploits) László to build a grand-scale monument on his property. The rest of the cast includes Joe Alwyn, Stacy Martin (in her third collaboration with Corbet), Raffey Cassidy, Alessandro Nivola, Isaac de Bankolé, and Emma Laird.

The three-and-a-half-hour film was shot on 70mm by the director’s frequent cinematographer Lol Crowley, and taking charge of the grand-scale production design is Judy Becker (Carol). A24 picked it up following its Venice premiere for an astounding $10 million. Ahead of its release this December, A24 has released its first trailer.

In his review from TIFF, Editor-at-Large Matt Delman wrote “The third feature from director Brady Corbet, The Brutalist, stands as a monument to grand epic cinema, and to the immigrant experience–much like the Statue of Liberty, which graces its opening scene. Escaping the nazi invasion of his home of Budapest, Hungary, László Toth (Adrien Brody) gently captures our hearts as a gifted architect separated from his family… [Felicity Jones] provides Corbet’s film with a heart and a soul, at times reminding me of my own Hungarian grandmother who came through Ellis Island at the age of nineteen. Both actors had to learn Hungarian, and completely inhabit these characters, showing tremendous strength in the face of persecution… While there has been much talk about the three-and-a-half-hour runtime, nobody in my theater seemed to get restless at any point. The massive architectural undertaking–four buildings in one–mirrors the massive filmmaking undertaking that Corbet and his collaborators have impressively delivered on. The Brutalist is being hailed as a masterpiece and though we don’t like to throw that word around too often, it’s hard to argue that any other film this year is as deserving of the acclaim.”

The Brutalist opens in select theaters December 20. Check out the trailer and poster below.

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