The Brutalist Backlash Is Already Exhausting and We Haven't Even Seen It Yet

The Brutalist is a legitimately impressive film. There, I said it first so the defenders can't weaponize it later. It's ambitious, visually stunning, and Adam Driver gives a performance that justifies every minute of runtime. But somewhere between the Telluride premiere and now, liking this movie has become an identity marker, and I'm watching film criticism turn into hazing.

Here's what's happening: People who loved it are now treating it like a three-and-a-half-hour purity test. If you didn't sit through the VistaVision experience in a theater specifically designed for it, did you really watch it? If you found parts of it slow, are you even capable of appreciating cinema? This is film snobbery with a megaphone, and it's exhausting.

The worst part? Nobody's actually talking about the *movie* anymore. They're talking about the *idea* of watching the movie—the commitment of it, the sophistication of enduring it, the moral superiority of not watching it on a streaming service someday. It's become about performing appreciation rather than feeling it.

Look, I get it. Brady Corbet made something undeniably bold in an era of 90-minute Marvel plots and TikTok-friendly edits. That *is* worth celebrating. But boldness doesn't equal perfection. There are sections of The Brutalist that genuinely test your patience, and that's okay! Saying "this movie has slower moments" isn't a moral failing—it's just describing cinema.

The real tragedy is that this movie deserves genuine conversation, not this performance Olympics where people are competing to prove they're serious film-goers. You know what kills cinema conversation? When admitting a four-hour film occasionally dragged feels like admitting you don't understand art.

I'm predicting we'll see a weird inversion in six months. People will start casually mentioning they found parts of it tedious, as if they're revealing a secret. Others will immediately assume it means they don't have taste. Both groups will be exhausting.

Here's my actual take: The Brutalist is worth watching in the best format available to you—yes, even streaming, and no, that doesn't make you uncultured. It's a bold, flawed masterwork that doesn't need defenders turning it into a gatekeeping exercise. The movie is confident enough to not need that energy.

Watch it. Form your own opinion. If you love it, great. If you found it punishing, that's also valid. And if you catch yourself about to explain why someone else's reaction to it reveals something about their soul, maybe don't.