MOVIE: The Brutalist (2024)

The Brutalist Year: 2024 Rating: R Length: 216 minutes / 3.60 hours Conceptually, I enjoyed the idea of The Brutalist (2024). There are few biopics about architects, let alone ones of this specific style, so manufacturing a story that feeds from common tropes in the biopic format felt like an interesting way to showcase this unique artistic architecture. Of course, because the life of Laszlo (Adrien Brody) wasn’t real, The Brutalist leans into other metaphors that were uncomfortable to watch and ended up somewhat ruining the film for me. The problem with a main character like Laszlo is that it doesn’t take long for him to do things that make him unlikable. Sure, one could argue the PSTD from surviving the Holocaust would cause him to act out in these ways just so he could maintain any semblance of control of his life. Unfortunately, the control he seeks is partly the reason for his demise, as it is through drugs and alcohol. Not that this...
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MOVIE: See How They Run (2022)

See How They Run Year: 2022 Rating: PG-13 Length: 98 minutes / 1.63 hours When it comes to certain actors, I've enjoyed their previous work enough that I'll watch them in anything now. Since Iron Man 2 (2010), I've liked what Sam Rockwell has done, whereas Lady Bird (2017) felt like Saoirse Ronan's breakout role for me. Having both these actors together in the same movie was a guarantee that I'd want to see it. Considering how the trailers made See How They Run (2022) look like a fun little whodunnit comedy, I was looking forward to how these actors would play off each other. Ronan's earnest police detective paired with Rockwell's hardened investigator was a fun match-up for this movie. It's not necessarily laugh-out-loud funny, but it's cute when it's amusing. That the "lessons" Rockwell's character inadvertently gives to Ronan's up-and-comer end up being the key to solving the case just makes it that much more fun. The other actors that surround this investigative...
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