Brick

Posted by benjamin on February 7, 2011

With my recent rash of movie reviews (here and here) involving Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I’m in fear of becoming a JGL fanboy. Well, its a little too late with Brick now being added to that collection.

Brick is a film noir for our present day. The concept sounded interesting enough. Classic detective story set in a modern day high school. This could have easily crashed and burned, but the writing took it to a new level. I was quickly immersed in a world of modern images but I could see the subtle throwbacks that were being presented to me. One of my favorite lines was when Brendan, the lead detective, was trying to find out who Emily was hanging around. Instead of making it that simple, Brendan posed the question “Who’s she eating with?”, a reference to the high school culture of lunch defining every clique. The dialog isn’t where the old school references stop. There’s even a standard light jacket any high schooler might wear representing our detective’s trench coat as well as a mysterious lady in a red dress.

With great writing and direction, we also need the acting chops to pull this off. JGL is an interesting choice, but he pulls the role off well. He mixes the high school looks with the ability to morph into a modern day detective. Think edgier Encyclopedia Brown. I was just as impressed with Nora Zehetner as our mysterious lady in red and Matt O’Leary as The Brain, or the more intelligent minor hero behind our protagonist.

Now it might have taken me two attempts to finish this film, but I found myself quickly questioning why I never returned to finish this film sooner. The only complaint here is that the ending could have given me more. It wasn’t bad. It was just lacking something, though I can’t put my finger on exactly what it was.

The Verdict:

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