The Statue of Liberty in New York is upside down when László Toth first sees it in the opening scene in Brady Corbet’s film The Brutalist. Toth, a Holocaust-survivor and Hungarian-Jewish architect, has come to the United States in 1947 to begin a new life. Toth’s clumsy viewpoint is the only reason the statue looks upside down, but the visual inversion of America’s iconic welcoming spot for immigrants serves as a warning that this movie is not a triumph of “the American dream.”
Despite its historical location, The Brutalist is a fictional plot and is nominated for ten Oscars, including best film, best director, and best actor (for Adrien Brody, who plays Toth).
