Essentials: Brick

He who smelt it dealt it

Year: 2005 (USA)
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama/High School Movie
Directed: Rian Johnson
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O'Leary, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan, Richard Roundtree
Production: Warner Bros.

Double Indemnity (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Touch of Evil (1958); all dramas that exhibit a sense of style and story unlike many others. They inhabit a world full of darkness, hardboiled antiheroes and glamorous femme fatales. No one is truly innocent and those who avoid the eye the intrigue never leave truly unscathed.

Brick (2005) lives comfortably in the den of noir, adding to the mix a little bit of chic and style. The story takes place in and around a high school in sunny California. Brendon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a derisive yet determined loner receives a distressing call from an ex who dumped him in search of opportunity. When Brendon finds her dead, he pulls out all the stops to find out what happened; first setting his sights on the popular clique of ne’er-do-wells.

Sincerely yours, the Casablanca Club.

The ages of those involved, and the setting of the sordid story would lead you to believe Brick is a high school movie. But believe you me, director Rian Johnson’s freshmen feature has more in common with The Maltese Falcon (1941) than The Breakfast Club (1985). The serpentine plot and the cynical characters that exist in the realm of San Clemente High School are pulpy, manipulative and mesmerizing.

Rian Johnson took certain visual cues from Chinatown (1974) with a dash of The Lady From Shanghai (1947) but he wisely retreated to the main source for his story borrowing heavily from dime store novel master Dashiell Hammitt. The dialogue lays on a thick swirl of clandestine lingo and clever turn-a-phrase which would sound oddly plausible in grade school if not for the absence of LOLs and YOLOs.

And then Kelly was all like OMG

The story behind Brick, much like the stories of most old-timey detective mysteries is simple yet incredibly complex, both emotionally and linearly. But lest you think Brick is cheap imitation I assure you its fresh and new, and not just because its set in a high school. I’m confident that if the story of Brick were told with veteran actors in a dirt encrusted city it would be up there with new classics like L.A. Confidential (1997) if not rank with the likes of Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep, and Touch of Evil.

Final Grade: A