Minnesota’s Intriguing Connection to Golden Globe Winning ‘The Brutalist’

The movie 'The Brutalist' took home tons of awards at the Golden Globes on Sunday. The director, Brady Corbet, took home the award for Best Director for a Motion Picture. Lead actor Adrien Brody took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. The movie also was awarded Best Motion Picture - Drama, one of the biggest awards of the night.

Long story short, 'The Brutalist' seems to be a movie worth checking out. However, I hadn't really heard much about it until it won all of these awards.

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What is 'The Brutalist' About?

'The Brutalist' was just recently released on December 20th, 2024. So far it's receiving high praise with a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and 88% on the Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter (aka: ratings from normal people like us as opposed to the critics).

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The movie follows László Tóth (who is played by Adrien Brody) who is a Hungarian-Jewish architect. He and his wife survived the Holocaust and immigrated to America. As Rotten Tomatoes writes: "László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost..."

I came to learn that Brutalism is a type of architecture that began around the timeframe this movie takes place. So is it a true story?

Is 'The Brutalist' a True Story?

While there are many historical events referenced in the movie and the creation of Brutalist architecture did happen around this time, the story of László is not true.

But what about what the movie was named after, Brutalism? What's the story there?

What is Brutalism Architecture?

Architectural Digest writes that Brutalism architecture was "developed in the 1950s in the United Kingdom following World War II." The style has "an emphasis on construction and raw materials".

From what I've seen, the Brutalism style is very blocky and, a lot of the time, made of concrete.

It was common for cultural and civic buildings that were built between the '50s and '70s to be created in the Brutalist style.

As I did more digging, I discovered we have a few Brutalism-style buildings still standing right here in Minnesota!

Brutalism Architectural Style Seen in Minnesota

Most of the Brutalism buildings in Minnesota are a part of the University of Minnesota. One of them is the Arvonne Fraser Library.

Also part of the U of MN and an example of Brutalism is the Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower.

The Rarig Center is also on the University's campus.

Other Minnesota buildings not on campus that are Brutalism style are Peavey Plaza at the south end of Nicollet Mall.

And also Riverside Plaza in Minneapolis, which are colorful apartments that you'll see when you're on 35W or 94.

Maybe I'm a bit nerdy but I think it's pretty cool to learn about some of the history of these buildings we have right here in our state! Especially when it gives us a bit of a connection to big movie that's out right now.