get down to brass tacks

“Let’s get down to brass tacks: It’s too expensive to live here.”

His plays demonstrate a fierce effort to get down to brass tacks.

“The major work will happen in the months ahead, when we’ll get down to brass tacks and craft a responsible and balanced budget which will help make California more livable and affordable.”

"It's almost inevitable that the splintering will happen when you get down to brass tacks about what good parenting really looks like."

But then we get down to brass tacks and the trailer... pretty much tells you the movie’s entire plot, as my colleague Chaim Gartenberg noted in a first look.