#I was glad I saw the brutalist open captioned

[cookinguptales]

I've seen two long-ass movies so far this trip while recovering from my nights at the McKittrick. Saw Seven Samurai yesterday and just got out of The Brutalist now.

Oof. While there were aspects of The Brutalist that I enjoyed (particularly the cinematography) I would say that I really did not like the film. I felt like the second half of the movie wasn't nearly as cohesive as the first half and... I guess I don't have time to get into all of it now, but I really did not like some of the narrative choices that were made or what those choices implied.

(Honestly, I can't tell if the movie was actively aiming to be homophobic or if they just really didn't think through the implications of some of their narrative choices. Also I hear that people are arguing about the parts of the movie re: Israel and like. I thought the writing was pretty muddled by the end of the movie, which might be why people can't seem to agree on what the point of it all was, but I did find myself questioning what exactly the aim there was as well.)

I liked Seven Samurai a lot more yesterday! It was kind of fun to finally get a chance to sit down and see it, especially in a theater. I will say that like... It's a little difficult to assess old, influential movies sometimes because you find yourself feeling like things are pretty predictable...? But then you realize that the reason these tropes already feel familiar to you is because this work invented/popularized them and then everyone else copied them. So then you watch the original and it no longer feels... original, perhaps. (I felt the same way to an even greater extent when I finally saw Citizen Kane.)

But I think the fundamentals of the movie are strong enough to keep you interested and energized even when you already pretty much know where things are going. And there were moments of the movie that are... arresting, maybe. Like you get caught up in the adventure of it all only for the film to take you by the shoulders and remind you that you're dealing with some very tough subject matter. So some parts were very emotionally affecting. Even though it was a little more... almost swashbuckling in tone? I had moments where I got much more choked up than I did while watching The Brutalist, even if The Brutalist had a much darker tone.

So... long story short, I liked it! Here's hoping that I enjoy Nosferatu tomorrow, too.