Brady Corbet‘s ambitious epic The Brutalist opened Friday in the United States, allowing general audiences to see the film that critics have been raving about since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 1. Just how much have film journalists loved this expansive 215-minute film about a Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor (played by Adrien Brody) who seeks a new life in the United States? Let us count the ways.
Based on 35 reviews compiled as of Dec. 20, the film has a sky-high Metacritic score of 91, indicating “universal acclaim” on the review aggregator. On Rotten Tomatoes the film is 96 percent fresh. Metacritic measures critical response on a sliding scale between zero and 100, while Rotten Tomatoes gives critics a binary choice: a film is either fresh or rotten. So while the Tomatometer shows us that the film is generally well-liked, Metacritic makes it clear that the reviews aren’t just good, they’re great.
A whopping 15 of the 35 reviews on Metacritic give the film a perfect score of 100. Among those critics is David Fear (Rolling Stone), who calls the film “a new great American masterpiece.” Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian) calls it “amazing and engrossing,” with Brody giving a “career best” performance. Rafa Sales Ross (The Playlist) writes, “It is hard to conceive of a director this young and early in his career to be able to deliver a film that comes out of the gates with the confidence and grandeur of a classic. And not a classic in the making, but one already made.” And while Rory O’Connor (The Film Stage) doesn’t think the film is perfect, “it offers an all-too-rare reminder of how it feels when this art form is at its very best.”
Manohla Dargis (The New York Times) is also effusive about the film as “a grave, serious, visually sumptuous movie that puts a great many ideas into play, starting with the tension between art and commerce.” Brody is “haunting,” and Corbet directs “with beauty and soaring camerawork.” Amy Nicholson (Los Angeles Times) calls it “a whopper of a film,” though she criticizes a few directorial and story decisions. None of the reviews compiled by Metacritic are outright negative, though. Alison Willmore‘s Vulture review might come closest, but even she still finds it “impossible not to be impressed by the sheer audacity” of the production even though she feels it “loses its focus by the end.”
The Brutalist rave reviews have been echoed by its performance on the year-end critics’ awards circuit. The film won Best Picture from the Chicago Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle, in addition to being cited by the as one ot the year’s 10 best by the American Film Institute, It has earned nine Critics Choice nominations and seven Golden Globe nominations as well. Critical response is especially pivotal for this film as its length and subject matter don’t lend themselves to blockbuster box-office success.
Does that mean The Brutalist will win Best Picture at the Oscars? There is precedent for the critical darling taking the top prize. Consider The Hurt Locker (2009), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Moonlight (2016), and Nomadland (2020). Other times, however, the darker option loses out to a more populist crowd-pleaser: The King’s Speech over The Social Network (2010), Argo over Lincoln (2012), Green Book over Roma (2018), CODA over The Power of the Dog (2021). But it never hurts to have critics on your side, as glowing reviews can fuel your rise early in awards season before industry groups like BAFTA, SAG, and the Oscars take over.
