I saw Kevin Kolb play in college, but he didn't really make an impression on me. I was too busy cheering from the stands as my beloved Rice handed the University of Houston a tough loss in his first game as a starter in 2004.
Of course, Kolb recovered, and then some. In three seasons as a starter at Houston, Kolb threw for 9,833 yards and 60 touchdowns, leading the Cougars to two bowl games before being drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2007.
And now, with Eagles coach Andy Reid confirming longtime Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb's trade to Washington, all eyes are on Kolb, a native of Stephenville, Texas, as the starting quarterback of one of the NFL's marquee teams.
Since joining the team, Kolb has mostly ridden the bench behind McNabb (and occasionally also watched as Michael Vick took Wildcat snaps), though Kolb has the impressive distinction of being the first QB to throw for over 300 yards in each of his first (and so-far-only) NFL starts last year.
Of course, as the Philadephia Inquirer noted last week, "If Donovan McNabb is traded, Kevin Kolb will go from being the most popular Eagles player in town to being the starting quarterback." Reid's faith in him is a great start, but we'll just have to wait and see if Kolb has the skills and fortitude to make it in primetime. Vick now moves up from third-string to the backup, hovering over Kolb's shoulder.
As for me, well, Kolb fandom just isn't in the cards. When the Eagles come to Texas, I'll be rooting really hard — for the Cowboys.
What do you think, though, Cougar fans and others who've watched Kolb more closely? Does he have what it takes to be an NFL star?
Many filmmakers have taken their stab at making a great American epic, although few have truly succeeded. One of the best in recent memory came just last year with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which wrestled with the world-changing consequences of one man’s unique vision. Writer/director Brady Corbet attempts something similar, albeit with less of a broad impact, in the new film The Brutalist.
Adrien Brody plays the fictional László Tóth, a Hungarian architect who immigrates to the United States in the late 1940s to seek a better life for himself and his family. Working initially with his friend Attila (Alessandro Nivola) at a furniture business, a job redoing the library of the wealthy Harrison Lee Van Buren, Sr. (Guy Pearce) turns into his big break. Impressed with Tóth’s modern style — aka brutalism — Van Buren hires him to design a huge multi-purpose building to honor Van Buren’s late wife.
Tóth’s vision, however, is soon confronted with the reality of financial limitations, interference from Van Buren and others, and, for good measure, good old fashioned bigotry. The long-awaited arrival of his wife, Erzsebet (Felicity Jones), brings added stress, as years of suffering back in Hungary have left her in a wheelchair. As months and years roll by, Tóth’s dream becomes his nightmare.
Corbet, along with co-writer Mona Fastvold, signals his intentions to have the film be a throwback at multiple turns. The film was shot using VistaVision, a format created in 1954 but not used in America since 1961. It also clocks in at a whopping three-and-a-half hours and includes an intermission, a break in the middle of a movie that’s rarely been seen in the past 50 years. With the story spanning decades and the mid-century focus on a very particular style of architecture, much about the film is designed to take the viewer back in time.
In the first half of the film, Corbet intrigues with Tóth’s immigrant experience, which shows that even a man with his talents could only get so far without the help of others. The building of the narrative befits the grand scale that Corbet seems to be going for, the occasional odd detour notwithstanding. The production design, the score by Daniel Blumberg, and the acting all combine to set up what seems destined for an epic second act.
Instead, Corbet almost completely wastes the momentum he had built up. Even as he impresses with the looming building on a hilltop, he includes weird sojourns into Tóth’s drug use, throws in the occasional explicit sex scene for no good reason, and creates conflict out of thin air. The title gradually becomes less literal and more metaphorical, although arguments could be made as to which character it is actually referring.
Brody hasn’t had many notable starring film roles in the past 10 years, but he makes the most of this opportunity. Using a highly credible accent, he takes Tóth through big emotional swings while still remaining relatively subtle in his performance. Pearce is given the bombastic role, and he works extremely well while still giving the role a lot of nuance. Jones seems miscast in her role, though, while supporting actors like Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, and Stacy Martin are hit-and-miss in their parts.
Corbet, making only his third feature film, has an ambition with The Brutalist that is unmistakable. While there are elements of it that match his lofty goals, he too often veers off into territory that makes little storytelling sense. It may look like the latest “great American film,” but he’s mostly just using older techniques to make it feel more impressive than it actually is.
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The Brutalist opens wide in theaters on January 17.
