The trouble is The Brutalist cannot decide whether to peck at that facade with an awl or swing at it with a sledgehammer. Too often, it hands the wrong figurative tool to the actors for the wrong moments. Appreciably, Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce are formidably locked into their roles and stalwart in their respective characters’ competing visions and varying sins of pride. However, big moments get unsuccessfully needled while small ones get overly demolished, which ultimately betrays more characters than Brody’s and Pearce’s
Read MoreAnderson's hot streak at winning me over has now extended to two films in a row with "The Grand Budapest Hotel." Richly detailed in every sense of possible style, this is a superbly entertaining little caper film that should yield more success for Wes Anderson and earn even more new fans. I know it's just March, but I'm going to go out on a limb right now and say that this is the best written film you will see all year. The script is brilliant beyond measure and a star-studded cast rarely misses a beat to make those words shine and leap off the page and screen.
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