Brady Corbet’s odyssey into the artistic realms of the 20th century promises, on paper, to be a time-spanning epic. But though the running time is a whopping 3 hours and 35 minutes — with a 15-minute interval whether you want it or not — The Brutalist is, surprisingly, much more intimate than that. The type of 70mm he uses, lensed by regular collaborator Lol Crawley, is not the epic canvas of Lean or Kubrick but a way to propose a sense of scale. It’s the story of a man who thinks big, from a director who also has a vision that doesn’t fit easily into the modest confines of American independent cinema. It falls somewhat short of its lofty target, but it casts a strange spell and often swells with imagination.
Source: ‘The Brutalist’ Review: Flawed But Fascinating Edifice To Possibilities Of Cinema