For his third feature film following The Childhood Of A Leader and Vox Lux, writer-director Brady Corbet delivers an epic drama about the myth of the American dream. It’s told from the perspective of Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody nodding to his Oscar winning role in The Pianist) who flees Poland in the aftermath of World War II. As László makes roots in Philadelphia, he patiently awaits the arrival of his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) who eventually join him. 

The film was co-written with Mona Fastvold and takes on the same ambition and scope of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, featuring an impressive performance of simmering menace by Guy Pearce as millionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren (a character reminiscent in calculated cruelty as Daniel Plainview in the aforementioned film) who employs László to build a community centre.

The visually ravishing cinematography by Lol Crawley is introduced with flair in an opening shot that places the Statue Of Liberty upside-down making the audience starkly aware of the dizzying and overwhelming experience of its main character. László is a beautifully performed and written character with a heroin addiction due to pain and trauma who gradually becomes aware that the centre cannot hold as both the moral and physical foundations of his life and work as an American immigrant come crumbling down around him. 

The second act, which follows a 15-minute intermission featuring a photo of Erzsébet and László’s wedding (an item which offers proof for her safe passage), doesn’t entirely match the quality of the first. Yet ultimately there is so much complexity and awe-inspiring imagery in The Brutalist that the less convincing moments are forgivable. Corbet has crafted a nuanced examination of how the rich, and in turn capitalism, can brutalise, exploit and misunderstand the skilled creative mind. This is a cautionary and timeless tale with much contemporary relevance. 

The Brutalist is in cinemas from Friday 24 February.