“Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they’ll say they scraped it from that, who scored it from this, who bought it off so, and after four or five connections the list always ends with The Pin. But I bet you, if you got every rat in town together and said “Show your hands” if any of them’ve actually seen The Pin, you’d get a crowd of full pockets.”
Here’s the rub with Brick: If you’re into the movie in the first five minutes, you’re in for good. If not, you won’t buy it. Rian Johnson (director and writer) made what is essentially an homage to detective stories and film noir set in a high school. The meat of the film is in the words and if the words aren’t grabbing you or sound funnily discordant, then you won’t be a very happy camper.
Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt) is a loner whose girlfriend Emily calls him in a panic from a payphone. She spits out words that make little sense to Brendan. When she goes missing and then later turns up dead, Brendan doggedly pursues the truth of what happened to Emily, no matter what the cost.
Brick is a detective story set in an unconventional place. The fact that the main characters are high school kids in a high school at times can feel off-kilter and odd, but Rian Johnson’s writing is the real star of the show. It’s smart, keen writing that is something new and something old all at the same time. The writing wouldn’t be much without someone to carry it off and Joseph Gordon Leavitt does a remarkable job of making Brendan Frye relatable while delivering lines that feel more at home in something made in the ’30’s. The supporting cast are good but Gordon Leavitt is really who the film is hanging its hat on, so to speak, and he does a terrific job.
Multiple threads of the plot are interwoven and twisted about while a merry-go-round of high school degenerates float in and out of the picture; all threads meet nicely at the end when Brendan solves the mystery at hand. Brick is more than just a mystery film. It’s at times heart-breaking and saddening and at others, it’s darkly funny. Combine this with a haunting, original soundtrack and you have one hell of a movie.
Worth your time to Netflix, folks.
Hah – go figure, I *just* watched this for the first time last night (and even blogged about it today!). I’m right with you that the language is the star of the show, and I even like all the touches to keep it a classic noir – unspecific setting, heavy use of phone booths, adults only coming in to play specific characters.
I can’t believe it took me so long to see this movie, and now I’m really anxious to go out and see Johnson’s second flick, THE BROTHERS BLOOM.
I just read your review before seeing you commented here. Nicely done yourself!
I’m really anxious to go out and see Johnson’s second flick, THE BROTHERS BLOOM.
I’m really pissed that I missed The Brothers Bloom while it was here at AFI Dallas, but tickets to see it were staggeringly crazy due to the fact that Adrien Brody was showing up to accept an award from the festival.
i absolutely loved Brick.
I liked Brick but found it terribly overrated, and for an old fart like me who grew up on noir and reading Hammett’s hardboiled prose, the lingo makes me think of Scott Baio in Bugsy Malone and really grates. It’s especially repetitive, how many times does he say “every bull in the burg”?
Worth seeing once. I forgot it already.
See, I didn’t grow up reading Hammett and I didn’t grow up with a lot of noir, so it doesn’t feel sort of irritating to me. I think that phrase is really repetitive and everyone uses it over and over again.
Then again, aside from the words, I think the biggest reason to see it is the score/soundtrack. Beautiful stuff.
I just bought this from Big Lots for $3. That’s why I always browse the DVDs there. You never know if you’ll find something awesome.
Man, I need to get myself to Big Lots!
I just saw Brothers Bloom last week, still need to get my post up. Watching it made me want to pull Brick off my shelf and watch it again. Well that, and the fact that I’ve seen so many 500 days trailers. JGL is my man! I don’t think I’ve seen a performance of his I haven’t liked.
I don’t think I’ve seen a performance of his I haven’t liked.
I hope he kills it as Cobra Commander in the new GI Joe movie, because that is the only expectation I have of that movie – for JGL to be good in it.
You and me both. If JGL is good, the rest of GI Joe can suck…and probably will.