Brick

'Keep your specs peeled', tells main character Brendan to his most reliable friend Brain. It's just an example of the great dialogue which Brick is full with. Great smooth lines and lots of 'lingo' only the characters understand constitute part of the coolness of this movie. Wonderfully shot, you keep your eyes pierced on the screen to watch the next shot hit you. In director Rian Johnson's first feature length film everything seems to be well thought out. Also the writer of the screenplay, Johnson's involvement is bigger than most directors, which isn't a real surprise, considering it's his first film, made independently, so no big studio involvement. This is his get-into-Hollywood card and telling by his new film, which will feature big name actors like Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody, it seems he got in already and got in fast. Watching Brick you notice Johnson has lots of talent. The writing is fresh and influenced by the film-noir genre, as is the whole film. For instance, there's the detective sorting out the dissapearance of his girlfriend and soon thereafter her death, there's the guy who operates as his brain and does all the thinking which he can't do himself, there's the mysterious bad guy and his handler 'the muscle', and the femme fatale. The main difference here, though, is the fact that the film takes place at a high school and involves some teenagers and twenty year olds. Speaking lines at high speed that sound almost if Shakespeare wrote them, you constantly are aware of the two colliding worlds, the inner which comes straight from a film-noir and make the teenage characters act like adults talking heavy stuff, and the outer which gives them the appearance of some high-school student hangin round its parkin lot and sports field. Holding the film together is the very nice performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the still young actor who already got a bunch of films under his belt, and the also great supporting cast, with especially nice performances from Noah Fleiss ('Tugger') and Noah Segan (Dode). Together with the great cinematography, it makes for a very good and, even though highly inspired by the film-noir genre, a very original film.

What is it about?

On the telephone, Emily, Brendan's girlfriend, aks him for help since she is said to be in big trouble and has really messed things up. Confused about what happened, Brendan suggest the two to meet, but she can't. Next she hangs up and Brendan's left hanging, not knowing what exactly happened to her, but determined to figure it out. Together with Brain, his smart friend with the big specs, he starts looking for clues to find out where Emily might be, his only leads being the words: 'Brick', 'Tug', 'Poor Frisco' and 'Pin'. Three of them don't ring any bells, but the last one 'Pin' does and Brain sends Brendan off into a search. He starts with Kara, the high school actress, then is lead to a party where he learns more about Laura and the school jock Brad Bramish, which eventually leads to Dode, a guy hanging round a place called 'Coffee and Pie, oh My'. When after a short conversation with Emily, in which she still won't spill the beans of whats really going on, he gets his hand on a note she got from Dode earlier, with only something that looks like a drawing of a capital 'A' and the word midnight beneath it, Brendan figures it's the place where Emily and Dode will meet. However when Brendan finds the place, Emily's dead. Now even more determined to figure out what happened to her the moment she called and what caused her death, Brendan is about to be lured into a darker underground world and find out the other meaning behind the word 'brick'.

Final Verdict: ****

Even though this film has a lot going for it, it didn't blow me away like I expected to. It seems to lack something that would really have turned it into a favourite that you want to watch over and over again. One of those things might be all those things that make the film so great. 'Cause, even though the dialogue is great and different, it is hard to follow sometimes because of the speed with which it is spoken. And the story is good, but when you can't get hold of every word that is said, you feel like you miss something crucial to the story, which you actually don't. I can tell, 'cause I watched the film twice, first without subtitles and then with. But overall the film is really good. The camerawork is terrific, coming up with great shots from different angles and lots of fast pans, like the scene where Brendan and Brain meet in the library, filmed from behind the book, the actors only seen in profile, or the one where Brendan wants to throw a brick through Tugger's car's window, but then gets hit instead. First a shot is shown of Tugger walking up fast at Brendan, looking angry. Close thereafter comes the punch with, instead of the camera tracking backwards towards the place Brendan is hit, the camera tracking forwards, making for the feeling of a very powerful punch. Then the camera pans right to where Brendan falls after getting hit again, then left, to where he is hit next, then back to right stopping in the middle to show Brendan's hand reaching against the car's window. It's a treat to watch this one shot, as are all the other ones. As a viewer you feel you're watching a real pet project that feels very complete. Brick really is a nice solid and fun film, with a good script, very well written characters, and strong acting. Very narrative driven, 'cause unlike some films nowadays the story alone is already that good, it's a great achievement for a director who's just getting started.