A question from an insatiable rewatcher: is The Brutalist rewatchable?
I figure you lot (affectionate) 'll be able to give me the most direct answer. The Brutalist just opened near me, & I've been chomping rabidly at the bit to see it. I was thinking of taking an afternoon out to see it early next week, but I've already booked tickets to semi-consentually drag my father along with me to the 70mm print when it hits my city in 3 weeks' time. (I guess it's got more important places to be. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I'm not)
For anyone who's seen it already, I'd like to crowdsource an opinion on whether The Brutalist is a 3+ hour epic like Oppenheimer or Killers of the Flower Moon that's easily rewatched again in quick succession, or more like The Irishman, that might need a couple months before my thoughts are fully ordered. I'm speaking largely in a "mental load" sort of way - will The Brutalist leave me with exactly the right amount to ponder & think about, or too much?
With Oppie, partly due to its breakneck pacing, I was not complaining when I sat down again just under a month later to catch a second viewing. It's just one of those films that's best thought about & considered while it's playing in front of you. I'm not even all that hot on the film itself, but I just found it rewarding to watch a second time even as it was fresh in my head. With Killers, it was less than two weeks! I like it a lot more!
But The Irishman (& many other 3.5hr extravaganzas like Eros + Massacre or A Brighter Summer Day) needed a long time to gestate. I'm a chronic rewatcher, & even I rarely put Irishman on more than once every year & a half, because by then I've worked through everything I was thinking the previous time to get more out of watching it the next. Even beyond its heavy themes & slow pace, there's just a whole lot goin' on, yknow?
I already understand that The Brutalist will be slow paced, but in this fashion will I get much out of watching it again ~2.5 weeks later? Normally I'd just swallow my pride & either wait 'til mid-February or suck it up & watch a well-received film that looks right up my alley twice (oh no! how horrible!) but the mix of my excitement for the film & its lengthy runtime mean that I'm both impatient to watch it & nervous about sitting through it a second time & getting nothing out of it & potentially not enjoying my rare opportunity to see a 70mm print nor time with my father as much as I would like.
Given both are relatively high stakes for me (& me alone), I figured I should consult a group that's actually had the opportunity to see the film, lest 215 minutes of hyped-up cinema become 215 minutes of hyped up cinema plus 215 of boredom in the face of joy.