Up until now, we have seen vanishingly little of Vox Lux director Brady Corbet's hotly anticipated next film, The Brutalist — but we have heard plenty about it. Fresh off the back of a bunch of Golden Globes nominations, Corbet's Oscar-tipped movie — a three-and-a-half hour long epic that follows architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) as they flee the horrors of the Holocaust to chase the American Dream in post-war Philadelphia — has already been acclaimed for its stellar cast, monumental scale, and There Will Be Blood evocative sense of sweep and Great American storytelling. Now, thanks to the full trailer A24 just put out for the movie, we're getting our first glimpse at what's already shaping up to be one of the biggest films — in every sense — of 2025.
Shot in VistaVision and gearing up to be shown in glorious 70mm at film-capable cinemas across the country, it's fair to say that The Brutalist does, on first appearance, look absolutely massive — and intendedly so. Introducing us to Brody's Austro-Hungarian architect László Toth as he leaves his homeland and the horrors of World War II to pursue new beginnings in the self-purported Land of Hope and Glory, this first proper taste of Corbet's latest sees Toth's past and future entwine as his brutalist structures, devised to withstand the arena of warfare, tries to make something of himself in a country that could then — and can still now — be less than welcoming to foreigners. "Perhaps you can try and help your husband sound less like he shines shoes for a wage," sneers Guy Pearce's shit-eating industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren. You sense that as the film runs the emotional gamut, juxtaposing great buildings with greater yet emotions, just as intricate in their own architecture and scaffolding, there'll be no shortage of conflict for Brody's Toth — who we already see laughing, crying, bellowing, and eventually dominating the frame here — to navigate.
And here's the official synopsis for the movie: "Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth (Brody) arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet (Jones) after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost…"
After all the buzz that's been generated around The Brutalist, we can look forward to seeing what Brady Corbet, co-screenwriter Mona Fastvold, and their talented band of collaborators have built when the movie hits our screens on 24 January, 2025.
