Adrien Brody gives a towering performance as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who emigrates to America after WWII, only to have his artistic vision consumed by the corrupting forces of capitalism and ego. Brady Corbet’s 3.5-hour epic is a meditation on art, ambition, and the American dream.

This is ambitious, uncompromising filmmaking that demands patience and rewards it in equal measure. The VistaVision cinematography renders America as both beautiful and terrifying, a land of infinite possibility and soul-crushing disappointment. Brody’s Tóth is a man caught between artistic purity and the necessity to survive, and his journey becomes a tragic allegory for the immigrant experience and the price of the American dream itself.