‘Gladiator II,’ ‘The Piano Lesson,’ ‘Nickel Boys’ Use the Weight of Past Events to Tell Contemporary Stories

variety.com:

Stuart Miller The past is ever present in our lives, so it’s unsurprising that many movies lean on that juxtaposition in the stories they tell.

In 2024, the past casts an espe- cially big shadow across films like “The Brutalist,” “Gladiator II,” “The Piano Lesson,” “Conclave,” “A Real Pain” “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” “The Return” and even the comedy “My Old Ass.” “Memory and trauma are inextricable from the present moment,” says “Nickel Boys” director RaMell Ross.

The Holocaust looms over both “A Real Pain” and “The Brutalist,” although the former examines how the trauma still lingers existentially several generations later, while in “The Brutalist” it’s as immediate as the nose on Laszlo Toth’s face: Toth (Adrien Brody) wrecked it jumping from a train to survive, leading to a heroin addiction to treat the pain. “We all carry our history in our body,” says Mona Fastvold, who co-wrote the movie with director Brady Corbet.

After emigrating to America — where, as Fastvold notes, greed and unfettered capitalism rule while antisemitism remains potent — Toth pours his past into his architecture.