---
title: Brutal Truths About ‘The Brutalist’
date: 2025-02-27T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/brutal-truths-about-the-brutalist"
section: Articles
---
# Brutal Truths About ‘The Brutalist’

*February 27, 2025* — by [Maggie Haslam](/author/maggie-haslam)


> UMD Professors Draw Facts From Fiction in Oscar Favorite

*Sequence 10 02 12 39 09 Still006 1920x1080 — Adrien Brody's portrayal of fictional architect Laszlo Toth in the Oscar-nominated film "The Brutalist" dips into common myths about the profession, but also presents some aspects of it with unprecedented realism, according to UMD architecture faculty members.*

At a key moment in Brady Corbet’s film “The Brutalist,” architect Laszlo Toth, a tortured visionary played by Adrien Brody, berates another architect for revising his design of a career-making project in rural Pennsylvania: “Everything that is ugly, stupid, cruel, but most importantly, ugly … is your fault,” he roars.

The scathing scene is one reason the film lives up to its name (copious drug use, violence and sexual assault, and a nearly four-hour run time also help). But it’s realistic, said architecture Assistant Clinical Professor Ken Filler.

“Often there is a design architect and an architect of record on a project, and those disagreements really do happen,” said Filler. “But this film has definitely created a dividing line. Half of my friends who are architects really liked it, and half of them found it really frustrating.”

Like brutalism itself—a mid-century style of blocky, imposing concrete structures that is now often vilified—“The Brutalist” [has evoked strong opinions](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/29/architecture-the-brutalist-marcel-breuer#:~:text=While%20the%20film%20world%20has,%2C%E2%80%9D%20declared%20the%20Washington%20Post.) within the architecture community over its depiction of the profession, which serves as a backdrop to the film’s gritty postwar immigrant story. Below, Filler and Adam Ainslie, a practitioner and lecturer with the University of Maryland’s Architecture Program, weigh in on its accuracies, overreaches and inspirations.

**It reinforces the myth of the black-caped, solitary architect.**Brody’s brooding character, a glowing cigarette dangling from his lips, seemingly creates the film’s signature project—a community center outside of Philadelphia—entirely solo with barely a draftsman in sight. The film’s depiction of an “individual, struggling genius” is a stereotype at which Ainslie bristles; architecture is a team sport, he said, with the most famous architects collaborating with dozens of people. “In reality I’ve never worked on a project alone,” he said. “It paints a weird picture of architects, and it's exactly what I don’t want any of my students to think.”


*Louis Kahn and John Hill — Louis Kahn (right), a Philadelphia-based brutalist architect who dedicated UMD's Architecture Building, partly inspired the character of Laszlo Toth. (Photo courtesy of School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Library)*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Architecture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/architecture), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation](https://today.umd.edu/topic/school-architecture-planning-and-preservation)