BrickTakes Hold of Film Noir Detective Movies

I really like genre films...if done well. I think it takes a supreme amount of skill to bring freshness and vitality to a structured and sometimes predictable format. Wes Craven's Scream is widely regarded as an excellent example of this energizing of a stagnant formula. Well, what Scream did for slasher/horror pictures, Brick is doing for the film noir detective story.

Imagine a world just like Sam Spade's in The Maltese Falcon, complete with hard-boiled dialogue, a femme fatale, and a mystery to solve. Now translate this 1940's detective tale into 2006--and into high school. Yeah, you heard me. It's a 40's detective flick and modern high school drama in one. Unbelievable? A little, sure. But if you can suspend disbelief just a fraction of amount that you did when you saw Star Wars, you'll be blown away.

Leading man Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock from the Sun) gives nothing short of a phenomenal performance as Brenden, a high school student searching for murderer of his ex-girlfriend. Why was she killed? What is this "brick" she spoke of? Who is this mysterious person known only as "The Pin?" And is the beautiful Laura (Nora Zehetner) in this for her own reasons, or someone else's? Along with his ever knowledgeable sidekick, The Brain (Matt O'Leary), Brenden is determined to find the answers, no matter how far he has to dig into the seedy underbelly of his small town high school.

Writer/Director Rian Johnson has created an intelligent script that complements Steve Yedlin's bleak (yet beautiful) cinematography perfectly. The sound design also lifts the movie to new heights, adding color and character in unexpected places. Every filmmaker should be so aware of how effective sound can enhance the viewing experience.

The DVD offers deleted scenes, commentary by the director, and variety of subtitles and translations. Nothing super special here, but enough to make the purchase and/or rental very worth it.

The Bottom Line: Brick offers an intense, highly stylized murder mystery that will unquestionably keep you engaged with sounds, sights, and performances you've not seen in film before.

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