The Brutalist

What is this sprawling, self-indulgent film meandering around an imaginary plagiarised architect really about? Sex? Drugs? The incoherent soundtrack? It's certainly not about architecture (which is what I'd hoped for), it's not about being an exiled European Jew after World War Two. It's not about love, disability or abuse or any of the many other issues it could have been about but slithered past.

Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian says 'it is about antisemitism and the capitalist adventure, about the unassimilated immigrant experience and about American can-do naivety versus the tragic, painful depths of European culture and expertise.'

Really? I suppose it could have been, but it didn't stick to anything enough to make me reflect.

Saving grace: some beautiful cinematography at the Carrara marble quarries (but not the bit of unnecessary brutality that followed).

The director has won the Silver Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, Best Director at Golden Globe Award, three Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (though the audience I was in laughed several times at clunky dialogue), and is in contention for the Oscars.

I thought I'd compare myself with the 20 other blippers who've commented on it. 15 were positive, two non-committal and three negative.

Just shows how much I know about film.