Boyero’s criticism of the three and a half hours of ‘The Brutalist’: “I wouldn’t mind if it lasted a little longer” | Culture

The Brutalist It is already in Spanish cinemas and Carlos Boyero has shown his opinion in the critics’The Brutalist: so strange, dark and fascinating’, which can be read in full here. The film has received ten Oscar nominations in almost every major category: film, direction, lead actor, supporting actor, supporting actress, original screenplay, editing, cinematography, soundtrack and production design.

Boyero associates this three-hour and 35-minute film, which includes a pause, to the cinephilia of his childhood and adolescence: “I remember that the general public almost always left the theater happy and everyone felt in the pleasant obligation to watching those movies, they were mandatory topics for a few days to talk to family, friends and neighbors.”

The critic does not hide his irritation with the many producers and directors who consider that their films have the obligation to have “an endless and in many cases unnecessary duration.” But he emphasizes that in this case “he is hooked and surprised” and that he wouldn’t mind if it lasted “a little while longer.” In this sense, he is surprised to learn that the director, Brady Corbet, only needed 34 days of filming and just over nine million euros.

“I go with my senile prejudices to The Brutalist, which begins with a long shot in semi-darkness (and I tell myself with fear, we screwed up, another movie indie), and then feel fascinated by it,” says Boyero. He insists that he does not get tired, that he is hypnotized by his narrative style and that he never knows what is going to happen in the next sequence, even though “there is no spectacle, no epic, no poetry.”

Regarding its director, Boyero assures that “no complacency is allowed in his story, no bait for the viewer. He goes about his business, without concessions, like the protagonist of the story.” When he talks about the performances he doesn’t doubt either: “They are exemplary, led by that Adrien Brody who, as he already demonstrated in The pianist, “he knows how to suffer better than anyone.”

You can read Carlos Boyero’s full review in EL PAÍS at: ‘The Brutalist: so strange, dark and fascinating’.