Brick

With its hip lyrics and 50's styled character speak BRICK is an instant classic. It has a streak of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE in it. The eclectic arrangement of the deranged is inventive and full of texture. I own it and watch it often!

Brick is a detective/noir film but to the viewer’s surprise, in a high-school setting. It is written and independently directed by Rian Johnson. At the mention of any movie revolving around high school or teenagers, all that comes to mind are the various stereotypes but this movie gives a surprise to the viewer. The story revolves around a particular, rather abrupt and frantic phone call received by the high school misfit, Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) from his terrified ex-girlfriend, Emily Kostich (Emilie de Ravin) who begs him for his help. Brendan vows to investigate and solve her murder himself and is - in the process - forced to mingle with the very same high school stereotypes that he so diligently avoided. The character of Brendan is quite the risk taker, fearless to investigate all possible sources of information with the help of his only friend and a stereotypical nerd ‘The Brain’. With his vigilant tactics, he is determined to get his way into the neighborhood’s suspicious drug and crime network connected by some of the high school students and the local gang/drug leader ‘The Pin’; in order to get around to solving the mystery. Rian Johnson took some time to write the script which took inspiration from multiple sources like the noir film era of the 30s-40s. While taking its plot and feel from the celebrated American author Dashiell Hammett’s detective novels, the film is also largely inspired by the Anime “Cowboy Bebop”. Brendan’s character shows a huge influence of the lead character from the anime. Rian has focused greatly on minute details. Each character in the film has a connection with the other making the plot more complex and intricate. Also, a really vague (or maybe not so vague) thing I observed was the alliteration. The title of the film is “Brick”, the characters are “Brendan”, “Brain” & “Brad”. I think this was done deliberately to provoke the thinking of the audience. A hard to miss fact is that there are only two adults in the movi...

We start proceedings with "Brendan" (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) standing over the body of a girl lying dead in a storm drain. It turns out that she is "Emily" - and was his girlfriend. He's very much on the edge of society at his school, but with the help of his way more savvy, but just as ostracised, friend "The Brain" (Matt O'Leary) he determines to infiltrate the local drug supply network and get to the legendary "Pin". This is where he expects to find answers, and maybe even a bit of retribution. Along the way he encounters some of the less savoury characters from his community - notably the hard-punching "Tug" (Noah Fleiss) and the manipulative "Laura" (Nora Zehetner) and takes a few beatings - but will he get to his well shielded mark? It's really well written, this drama. The dialogue is complex and quickly paced - especially when delivered by JGL and the understated O'Leary. The rest of it, though, is all just a bit like a slightly grittier edition of "90210". The characters are all too shallow, the string-puller is fairly obvious from the start and the denouement is both rushed and rather unsatisfactory. The lead role is well enough executed, but as the rather thinly constructed plot unravels I just found I didn't really care one way or the other about this one man detective agency, or who did what to whom - as it steadfastly hammered another nail into the US teenage education system.