The Brutalist releases sweeping first teaser

Somehow, 2024 is actually coming to an end. If you don’t want to think about the massive political implications of that statement (although the movie being discussed in this article may force you to do so regardless), here’s a slightly happier thought to distract you. The end of the year means that the heavy-hitter Oscar contenders are finally rolling out for the rest of us. Last weekend, a handful of lucky cinephiles in New York and Los Angeles got their first taste of Anora, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winning stripper Cinderella story. (It opens in more theaters this coming weekend.) Now, you can also finally watch the trailer for Brady Corbet’s architectural epic, The Brutalist.

(We really do mean “epic” in the classic sense, by the way. Buckle up for a three-hour and 35-minute behemoth. At least it has a much-needed, 15-minute intermission baked into the reel. No Martin Scorsese skeptics yelling about pee breaks here!)

The Brutalist follows a fictional, Hungarian-Jewish architect named László Tóth (Adrien Brody) over 30 years of his life—from surviving the Holocaust to emigrating to Pennsylvania to the eventual contract with a fickle multi-millionaire (Guy Pearce) that will come to define the rest of his life (and life’s work). The Brutalist is about a lot of things—art, identity, legacy, trauma, and more—but it’s primarily about the impossibility of the American Dream, a treatment that feels especially urgent despite the film’s 20th-century setting. The film took Corbet—whose past work includes Vox Lux and the Tom Holland-led miniseries The Crowded Room—seven years to complete and earned him Venice’s prestigious Silver Lion award for Best Direction. It was filmed in VistaVision, the stunning results of which can be seen in the new trailer. The film’s Daniel Blumberg score is also a particular highlight.

In addition to Brody and Pearce, The Brutalist also stars Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Stacy Martin, Alessandro Nivola, Isaach de Bankolé, Raffey Cassidy, and Emma Laird. The film comes to theaters December 20.