I watched The Brutalist with my film club last week, and while I admired the ambition, I couldn't shake the feeling that three-and-a-half-hour movies are just a director's ego trip disguised as artistic merit. My crowd-check app said 62 people left during the intermission, and honestly, I almost joined them because the story didn't need that length to land its point. Movies like this gatekeep cinema for people who can afford an entire evening, which shuts out parents with kids or anyone working late shifts. Yet the film got a standing ovation from the critics at Venice, so maybe I'm the outlier here. Are extended runtimes like The Brutalist's a necessary canvas for serious storytelling, or are they just elitist bloat that prices out average viewers?