"The Brutalist" is an overwhelming achievement that genuinely deserves its modern masterpiece label. Director Brady Corbet's ambitious epic is a breezy three-and-a-half-hour cinematic tome about unwavering ambition and chasing the American Dream (along with the obstacles that entails), complete with a story that spans multiple decades. While use of AI on "The Brutalist" caused some controversy, the film has been praised for its authenticity, attention to detail, and complex rags-to-riches story -- which is why it could be mistaken for a dramatization of real historical events.

Indeed, watching "The Brutalist," one would be forgiven for assuming that the A24 drama was inspired by the life of a real-life figure from post-war America. The film stars two-time Oscar-winner Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor who moves to the Land of the Free after World War II to pursue his dream of becoming an architect. His journey throughout...