Customer Reviews

Brick

5 star:		(86)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I have to say it, "Brick" is probably the best movie I have seen this year so far, and I don't think I'll see another that will top it. I had heard about "Brick" for a while now, and when I heard the premise of it, I knew that it was something that I would have to check out. I'm glad I did, because not only did I end up enjoying it the first time I saw it, but I watched it again the next day. Not many films can do that for me, but this one most certainly did. There was no way I could have ever bet that I would've ended up loving this movie the way I do.

If you're unfamiliar with the approach to the movie, it's pretty much a detective-murder-whodunit movie with a catch; it's set in modern times and it involves high school kids. Yet, the kids talk in the manner that you would expect from your typical hard-boiled detective movie. The story concerns Brendan Frye, who is contacted by his ex-girlfriend by phone. On the phone, she sounds frightened and troubled, but doesn't say much about what is the matter. Two days later, she ends up dead. Brendan knows that she got involved with the wrong crowd, so in order to find out who is responsible for her death and why, he has to go in deep into the underground drug world that has consumed a good amount of his schoolmates. The deeper he goes, the more risk he puts himself in.

This film is extremely well done and well made, and that caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting a movie like this, nor was I expecting that I would end up loving it so much. The film seems innocent and fun at a glance until you really get into it, and then you realize how dark and brutal it can get. Just because it involves high school kids, it doesn't mean it's child's play. It's film noir at its finest, and it even pokes fun at itself a little here and there, but overall it's a pretty dark and serious movie. What really sells the movie in the end is the great performances from the cast, especially the lead actor.

Because of how odd and different "Brick" is, there's a good chance that more people will end up not liking it so much. That is the risk these kinds of movies take, but it's nice to see something that isn't so "commercial friendly" for a change. It stands out, and that's something that has to be admired to some degree. I would recommend renting it first because of this. Also, I recommend that you see it more than once. As much as I liked it the first time, I really appreciated it for what it was more during the second viewing. The DVD doesn't have a whole lot to offer, sadly. There are some deleted/extended scenes, audition tapes from two of the actors in the movie, and cast/crew commentary. It's a shame that they don't give you the trailer, which I thought was really good. I also would've liked to see some behind-the-scenes features.

"Brick" took me for a ride and I have to say that I loved every minute of it. It's an exhilarating and brilliant film that takes a lot of chances without apologizing to anybody in the end. It's one you'll either love or hate, but I think it's definitely worth the time checking it out. If you're looking for something that isn't typical or dull, then I highly recommend it. It's too soon to say, but I think if you give it enough time it could become a classic. It's high up on my list of favorite movies now, and that only took two days. -Michael Crane

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in "Brick" as Brendan, a high school student searching for his ex-girlfriend, Emily. After they broke up, Emily started "eating lunch" with a more popular, yet mysterious crowd ("The Upper-Crust"). As he delves into their world, he finds a sickening subculture of drugs, double-crosses, and worse.

The movie is set in Orange County (San Clemente), and the movie's big hook is that it's an update of those terrific film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s. Yes, the movie sometimes comes across as "The O.C." mixed with "The Lady from Shanghai," with just a touch of "Blue Velvet." However, as such, "Brick" succeeds very well. The dialogue is full of clever pithy lines and slang that went out with Eisenhower (Beautiful woman: Do you trust me now? Brendan: Less than when I didn't trust you before.). The directing is also terrific - kudos to first time director Rian Johnson. Finally, Jospeh Gordon-Levitt makes a likeable protagonist amidst the crazy proceedings and characters, including a rather magnetic Lukas Haas as "The Pin."

Although making the film in noir style is essentially a stunt, the tone helps make the movie deeper, more satisfying - easily one of the most intricate teen dramas ever made. The plot is full of holes (what film noir isn't?), but the noir style and look smoothes out the rough edges; yes, style does sometimes trump content. There were a few times when the "Brick" verged on being a typical teen movie; fortunately, Johnson manages to get back on track. Highly recommended for fans of film noir or sophisticated teen dramas.

Rian Johnson's "Brick" won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival for originality of vision, and seldom has an award been more deserved. This witty, breathlessly entertaining low-budget flick conflates modern-day high-school angst with the mean-street conventions of 1940s detective fiction and movies. The surprise is that director/screenwriter Johnson plays the story absolutely straight, and gets away with it, while at the same time touching on some uncomfortable truths about growing up in America. Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), whose delicate, poetic looks belie his limitless resources of toughness and courage, goes underground among his school's drug-addled "upper crust" to uncover the murderers of his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin). He endures multiple beatings from the goon Tugger (Noah Fleiss), as well as threats from both The Pin (Lukas Haas), a cadaverous criminal mastermind who still lives with his doting mother, and Assistant Vice Principal Trueman (Richard Roundtree), who basically plays the Barton McLane role to Gordon-Levitt's Bogart. Then there are the femmes fatales in training, Laura (Nora Zehetner) and Kara (Meagan Good), who may or may not be helping Brendan. "Brick" is remarkably stylish and atmospheric for its miniscule budget; Johnson is masterful at capturing the claustrophobic milieu in which Brendan and his antagonists lurk. There are scenes of action and suspense here that put big-budget epics like "V for Vendetta" to shame, simply because Johnson knows how to edit, and because he makes us care about the characters, especially Brendan. I never paid much attention to Gordon-Levitt until I saw his performance as an emotionally damaged male prostitute in Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin." Based on his performances here and in that film, I would say that Gordon-Levitt is quickly becoming one of the truly great American screen actors. All the other actors are also fine, including Matt O'Leary as The Brain, Brendan's informant and only true friend, and Noah Segan as the pathetic "reef worm" Dode. Some critics have complained about "Brick's" convoluted plot and stylized dialogue--Johnson creates a language for his characters that is half Chandleresque slang, half teen speak. But for me they only added to the film's fascination. You'll probably need to see the film more than once to catch all the details, but, then again, you'll WANT to see it more than once. Myself, I can't wait for the DVD to come out.

Brick is a strange animal that seems to appear almost out of nowhere. A lot of people my have come here because they've heard about this movie and haven't yet seen it. Some of you may have come here because you tried to watch it but had to turn it off because you couldn't understand what the hell they were talking about.

Let me suggest this: TURN ON THE SUBTITLES.

Yeah, I know it's in English and you recognize the main character from that TV show: Third Rock from The Sun, but this isn't a sitcom on NBC, and this isn't your typical run-of-the-mill, teen flavored High School drama. In Brick, you're about as far from John Hughes territory as your going to get and closer to the backyard of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler than you might realize. As a huge fan of The Big Sleep, I was really caught of guard by this film and stunned when I realized just what was going on. Seeing 1940's film noir, soaked in a teen centered tale of woe, works better than I would've ever thought. And for the record, I don't think anyone, other than the writer dared attempt something like this and succeed at it too. Bravo.

Rian Johnson makes a writing and directorial debut to rival most of his peers and mentors. This film is enough to make the Gods tremble, hopefully he'll be able to follow it up appropriately. On a side note, Rian offers up his screenplay, the novella he wrote that goes with it, an essay and drawings for no charge on his site, which is easily found, if you're interested in reading.

Nora Zehetner as the smoldering and cold-calculating heroine is also a definite high point, and her career and longevity in films is assured.

This film could easily be the Blade Runner of this generation.

I can understand why reviews of this movie are so split down the middle. It's a very strange and weird idea: Shoot a film noir and do the dialogue and structure as if you were adapting a Hammett novel back in the day, but set and shoot the movie at a contemporary California high school. Either you think this is brilliant or you think it's totally idiotic.

From my own experience and from talking to others, I think it is tough to get into this movie primarily because of the patterns of speech. Everybody talks very fast with a stylized delivery as if they were in a movie from the 30s or 40s, using a lot of slang most of us don't use, and the sound quality isn't so great. My suggestion to anyone who wants to give this a go but winds up having a hard time is to try it out with SUBTITLES, believe it or not (and I am *not* kidding about this). Because once I did, I realized I was mishearing certain words and I started to pick up on the rhythms, hear things correctly, and the dialogue started to sound natural; eventually I got into the flow of it enough to get rid of them (though I admit in a few scenes I wound up going back and putting them back on just to make sure I got the lines right).

You might ask, what's the point of doing a movie this way if it winds up creating a problem like that? Well, I think that the reason for dealing with this is because this oddball strategy of Rian Johnson's winds up actually creating one of the more successful attempts at a contemporary film noir. For whatever strange reason, the artificiality of the dialogue and farcical nature of the proceedings works quite well once you give in to the conceit. Many other attempts at doing a modern neo-noir wind up feeling way too "retro" and nostalgic and they stumble over themselves trying to figure out how to be modern but yet try to keep all the elements of old detective thrillers that people miss and want to see (see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for an example of sort of the tricky questions that come up in trying to do contemporary noir). The high school setting actually defuses that problem because it is silly and anachronistic already, so having modern day kids talking in old fashioned out of date tough guy lingo is no more strange than having anyone else, adult or not, talking that way these days. The plot is predictably convoluted in the old noir-detective style and there are all the usual archetypes and manipulations. Somehow they seem sort of fresh in the setting of high school. And since most of us tended to discover detective novels in our teen years, it seems perfectly fitting to project their tropes out into that world, to imagine that high school is a microcosm of all the things one read about in pulp fiction.

So I'll take sides with the "pro"-Brick crowd; I enjoyed it.

What Brick brings to the table is perhaps the most refreshing look at the genre of Film Noir in years. Rian Johnson is able to take the critical elements of the genre and transpose them on a fresh new locale. The use of a Southern California highschool as the backdrop is beautifully done. Most of all, Johnson is able to appreciate and use the genre without falling back on the 1940s.

The screenplay is exquisite. The developed slang is not just perfect for a film noir but truly perfect for the culture being shown. What is most amazing is how surprisingly real the film seems, despite the fact that yes - it is a bunch of teenagers who are caught up in a world so devoid of reality that its hard to believe. Yet somehow Johnson brings in elements of real-life high school drug culture, real-life Southern California, and most of all real-life fantasies about how to act when you are part of these cultures.

This was the best film I've seen in years, to be honest. I'm disapointed it has basically been predetermined for this to remain a "cult classic." It could have marked a re-emergence of Film Noir, arguably one of the most interesting and conflicted genres of film (in my opinion). However, I am glad it has been made because at least I will be able to take pleasure in viewing it. A must-see.

I had seen a preview or two of this movie and was interested immediately, but it was only when I saw this movie listed somewhere as one of the top 20 high school movies of all time, in the same category as such classic as Heathers and Ferris Beuller, that I was now fully intrigued. What makes a film about high school a classic for me is when it studies the absurdity of high school, the social circles that are designed more to torture individuals than promote them. And this is someone who was not just ostracized in high school, but has also come back to teach in it.

And to boot, this film also has the edge of making the world of this high school the setting of film noir.

The main story has to do with Brendan, an outsider who eats lunch behind the school building nowadays, who gets a note of desperation from her old flame, Emily. Emily is in trouble, but she can't say exactly what trouble she is in, which leads Brendan on a search through the culture of his school. With an informant named Brain, a classic geek who even works on a Rubrics Cube, Brendan delves into the world of the jocks, the beautiful people, and the burn-outs to work a plan that will have all involved exposing themselves to his limelights. There is, of course, a beautiful but possibly treacherous femme fatale, a Tolkein-reading drug dealer along with his fists-for-brains muscle, and a vice principal who sounds more like a police seargant in a crooked town than a suit with a degree.

But this film doesn't just work on the level of film noir appreciation. The social hell that is high school seems a fitting setting for this homage, so the technique seems quite fitting. The dialogue is wonderful to listen to, though it gets a little troublesome when it is being used to advance the plot, for the delivery is quick (as it is supposed to be, but still sometimes hard to follow) and the names almost too numerous to keep an even handle on. A bit of a score card is needed to keep track of some things, but a lot of this works out in fascinating ways, the plots within plots within plots led on by this tough plain-T-shirt wearing smart mouth who can throw a punch when he has to but also gets beat up about as much as Gabriel Byrne's character in Miller's Crossing.

Not the top 5 in the realm of high school film, but definitely within the top 20. Well worth a watch.

This film isn't for everyone, and those with no knowledge of (or taste for) film noir and especially the Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction sub-genre will likely be confused or even bored by it. If you like either, though, you're in for a real treat.

A high-school student gets a cryptic call from an ex, and when she turns up dead a few days later, he launches his own investigation into the matter. Matters spiral from there.

I call this "hard-boiled high school" because it ingeniously takes a standard pulp setting and updates it to a modern high school: instead of the D.A. breathing down the detective's neck, it's the vice-principal, etc. Clever stuff.

The plot's complexity is almost Chandleresque and requires paying attention to dialogue and background details. The dialogue is straight out of a '30s copy of that pulp classic, Black Mask magazine. Hammett would be proud, especially since some of the slang is encased in some truly witty dialogue.

You have to like this sort of thing, of course, but if you do, it's surprisingly well-done, especially given the limited budget and that this was the director's first effort.

Highly recommended for fans of this sort of thing.

Here's what the deal is: "I'll have my boys check your tale. Seeing how it stretches, we'll either rub or hire you. You'll know which by the end of the day tomorrow." And, "Drop me off at school."

Brick, an independent movie written and directed by Rian Johnson, is part stunt, part style and part energetic riff on gumshoe movies. Movie references are dropped like names but with more subtlety. It takes place in and around an affluent, sunny Southern California high school populated by the usual prom queens, rockers, vamps, brains, thugs and drug dealers. This is a Thirties gangster movie with all the clichés, played straight but with almost everyone a teen. You have to keep asking yourself, is this just a parody? Well, not exactly. It's...it's...it's part stunt, part style and part energetic riff on gumshoe movies. Rian Johnson, who graduated from USC's School of Cinema-Television in 1996, knows what he's doing. The tough acting is deadpan; the dialogue is quick, clever and loaded with jargon; things are said so quickly you'd better keep track of context.

What could have been just another tiresome melodrama of teen angst turns into a sort-of-serious crackpot tribute to old gangster movies. It works so well not just because Johnson is unusually gifted and slightly off the wall, but because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the tough-talking, resourceful and relentless Brendan Frye. He may be a teen, but Brendan also is Sam Spade, George Raft, the Continental Op, you name it. This particular homage covers a lot of Thirties ground. It all starts when Brendan, a classic high school loner, finds his former girl friend he still has feelings for is in trouble. She calls him and pleads for help. The next thing, she's killed running from Brendan and into a dark drainage pipe. Brendan's smart but not one for school rules or social niceties. He starts asking around and gets beaten up. He is determined to find out why Emily was killed and do justice to those responsible. His only ally is The Brain, a super nerd and friend who knows a lot and sometimes can link unexpected dots. Soon we meet Laura, a high school femme fatale who can afford excellent manicures; Kara, a drama queen who seems to have no heart and a fondness for manipulation; Dode, a high school greaser with a shiny pompadour who dresses in black and says, gee, I loved her, too; and Tug, a blonde muscle boy who combines the build and the temperament of an enthusiastic steroid aficionado. Tug's rages should be avoided. Brendan doesn't. Lurking behind Brendan's search for the "why" of Emily's death is The Pin (Lukas Haas), a young man about 26 who wears a black cape and uses a cane. He admires the Hobbit books. The Pin knows heroin pays a lot better than a community college Associate of Arts degree. The Pin has a basement office with cheap paneling and a mom who obliviously serves homemade cookies and apple juice to Brendan just after Tug, on The Pin's order, does a number on Brendan's face. Mom is a friendly sort without a clue to her son's activities. Her cookies look really good. I think they were raisin oatmeal.

When Brendan figures things out and forces a violent, nasty, clever showdown, a lot of bad guys pay the price, with a betrayal Brendan will never forgive. For Brendan? Well, Emily will always have a place in his heart.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt manages all this with complete assurance. He never winks at the audience. Those who saw him in The Lookout (2007) know just how fine and authentic an actor he is. As part of the generation now closing in on Pitt, DiCaprio and the like, Gordon-Levitt, if he isn't seduced by Hollywood's obsession with action heroes and the associated fame and cash, should find himself with a great reputation as an actor, not just one more dime-a-dozen superstar.

Brick is odd, clever, fast and coherent. Sure, it's something of a stunt. If you don't mind sometimes smiling along with your favorite movie genre, you'll probably like it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a bang-up job. He may wear glasses but he never carries a gat.

In up and coming director Rian Johnson's film Brick, audiences are treated to a truly unique and memorable mystery film. Inspired by the literary work of the great detective novel writer Dashiell Hammett, who is best known as the creator of Sam Spade and The Thin Man, Rian Johnson set out to create a hip, contemporary noir film. While simultaneously following in the footsteps of great mystery writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Johnson succeeds in revitalizing the detective genre for a new generation, and he does so by making a drastic departure from the traditions of typical film noir. Rather than setting his story in a decaying metropolis full of smoky rooftops and shadowy alleyways, Johnson places the story and its characters in the suburbs of modern day Southern California. He transforms the hard-bitten stereotyped figures of pulp novels into world-weary teenagers and he updates the all-too-familiar dialogue of detective films, turning it into something more improvisational and poetic, almost as though the film's dialogue was part of a jazz song. Though the highly stylized dialogue limits the commercial accessibility of the film, it is arguably what gives the story its refreshing flavor. Using a combination of 1940s slang and modern pop terminologies, Johnson dislocates viewers from reality and relocates them in a "shadow world", where every darkness hides behind it a secret and every soul is haunted by their misdeeds. Yet somehow the film avoids pretension and self-importance, which is truly remarkable in itself.

When Brendan, an anti-social and extremely street savvy high school senior, receives a distressed phone call from his ex-girlfriend, Emily, who cryptically asks him to help her, he doesn't know what to do. They had broken up a few short months earlier when Emily began hanging with the wrong crowd; the rich, the snotty, the over privileged and then the low-level drug dealers and a host of other less than savory peers. Brendan had tried to protect her from their corrupting influence, from their world of drugs, sex, and violence, but his efforts failed and Emily left him for a drug dealer named Dode. Now Brendan sees his chance to help her, to save her from self-destruction if it isn't already too late... but it is. Learning that Emily was meant to meet someone for a late night meeting in a tunnel, Brendan shows up hoping to talk to her. Instead he finds her dead body. After hiding her body, Brendan begins to set into action a plan to find those responsible for Emily's "downfall". Naturally Brendan, being somewhat of a lone wolf, doesn't have direct access to the same cliques that Emily did. He goes to his brilliantly resourceful friend, Brain, who seems to have the dirt on just about everyone in school. With Brain's help, Brendan infiltrates a world of drug dealers, of adolescent femme fatales, of snitches and sneaks, and of conspiracies. Soon the trail leads him to a local urban legend regarding a drug dealer known as The Pin (short for The Kingpin), who lives in his parents' basement. When Brendan finally makes his way into The Pin's circle and meets his "hothead" bodyguard Tug, and his slinky and seductive gal pal Laura, he has no clue of the level of danger and deception that surrounds him. As the intrigue is elevated so too are Brendan's troubles. It doesn't take him long to figure out that "there's not much chance of coming out clean."

It should be pretty obvious that Brick is in no way an attempt to portray high school realistically. Rian Johnson has, in fact, succeeded in making high school even more oppressive and agonizing. Who knew that was even possible?
Another great strength of the film is its use of atmospheric and highly evocative music. The beautifully haunting score was created by Rian Johnson's cousin, Nathan Johnson, who heightens the story's emotional subtext and the dramatic tension in a devastating manner.
The film features a talented young cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan, Lukas Haas as The Pin, Noah Fleiss as Tug, Norah Zehetner as Laura, Matt O'Leary as Brain, Noah Segan as Dode, and Emilie de Ravin as Emily. The cast also features Meagan Good, and in a cameo role, Richard Roundtree of Shaft fame. The entire cast is really spectacular, especially when you consider the difficulty of delivering such strange, stylized dialogue with a sense of sincerity.

Also recommended:
The Maltese Falcon
Rebel Without a Cause
Chinatown
The Outsiders
The Coen Brothers Movie Collection
Romeo + Juliet
11:14