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Even though it also concerns an architect fighting entrenched elites to achieve his singular vision, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist doesn’t bow before the altar of The Fountainhead. Yet he takes a gauntlet thrown down early in King Vidor’s 1949 film adaptation of Ayn Rand’s novel—no place originality exists in architecture, and the past cannot be improved upon—more seriously than either artist. Corbet’s epic, like Adrien Brody’s László Toth, remains unconcerned with choosing between honoring the past and catering to the present. They instead seek to transcend time altogether, thus equipping their artistry to endure well into the future.

Corbet’s multi-decade survey of post-war America captures the sweeping scope of the novelistic period epics of the studio era, which embodied the cultural might of the United States as it asserted dominance across the globe. But The Brutalist rises above simple pastiche or homage.

If you see only one madly ambitious, wildly allegorical movie this year about a fabled architect whose dream is to design buildings that define the future, make that movie “The Brutalist.” I’m saying, in other words, that you should choose “The Brutalist,” the third feature directed by Brady Corbet, over Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” an architect saga that’s diverting for about an hour, until it descends into a folly that’s anything but grand. Why did Coppola, the great retro classicist of the New Hollywood, ever convince himself that he was an avant-garde visionary? “Megalopolis” is a movie that crashes into glittering fragments.

But with “The Brutalist,” Brady Corbet goes in the opposite direction. His first two films, the fascist parable “The Childhood of a Leader” (2015) and the pop-star parable “Vox Lux” (2018), had flashes of brilliance amid a sea of indulgence. But “The Brutalist” comes close to...

Jumper star Max Thieriot is to replace Dennis Hopper's son Henry Lee in horror movie 25/8.

Hopper was to make his big-screen debut as lead character Bug in the Wes Craven film, but was forced to pull out after being struck down with glandular fever.

The 17-year-old said: "Wes said he was thinking about pushing the film back but couldn't because of . . .

Jumper star Max Thierot is to replace Dennis Hopper's son Henry Lee in Wes Craven's new horror movie 25/8 - after the 17-year-old dropped out due to illness.

Henry Lee Hopper was set to make his big screen debut in the legendary director's next project but was forced to withdraw from the film after contracting mononucleosis - an infectious throat disease more commonly known as glandular fever.

Craven reportedly attempted to delay filming to give Hopper time to recover, but feared that if it was rescheduled, the project would fall prey to a possible actor's strike later this year.

Thierot, who starred alongside Hayden Christensen in this year's sci-fi thriller Jumper, has now been cast in Hopper's place and will start shooting in Connecticut this month.

And although Hopper is disappointed to have lost his part in the film, he's convinced Thierot will do a good job.

He says, "Wes said he was thinking about pushing the film back but couldn't because of the possible actors strike. I saw (Thierot's) audition, and he's a talented guy, really flexible, which fulfills the needs of the role."...