Bonus: The Brutalist is a Magic Trick

On this week’s exclusive Slate Plus bonus episode, Isaac Butler — author of The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act and host of the new Criterion Channel series, The Craft of Acting — sits in for Stephen Metcalf. Strap in as the panel spoils (and attempts to excavate meaning from) The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet’s overwhelming awards season darling. What is he trying to say with this film, exactly? Why do prominent characters suddenly fall away from the story? They discuss it all.