Truly, there is nothing worse than a film that overstays its welcome – that horrible feeling of being in the cinema and checking your watch only to discover you’re less than halfway through. Even a great film will be hurt by an excessive runtime (Killers of the Flower Moon), let alone a bad one (ahem… Babylon).
That said, there are exceptions. In the right hands, a film can and should be allowed to sprawl for as long as is necessary. Take The Brutalist – the 215-minute epic starring Adrien Brody is as poignant as it is prolonged. Brady Corbet’s story of artistic struggle is so long that it comes with a 15-minute intermission, and yet it earns every second of its screen time.
