NEW REVIEW!

BRICK

(2005, dir. Rian Johnson)

Arden ♥s this movie!!

This movie was great. I mean, G-R-E-A-T. Maybe it wasn't most polished movie or even the most well-paced movie but its one of the best scripts I've heard since The Big Lebowski in 1998. Not unlike Lebowski, Brick is a throwback noir film set in modern day California. So imagine those trite teen comedies of the late 90s except all the kids talk in the quip-laden dialogue of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammond. The story follows Brendan Frye (played by the ubiquitious Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who seems be a cross between Jordan Catalano and Humprey Bogart. Brendan is looking to find out who whacked his beautiful ex-girlfriend (Emilie de Ravin) and ends up infiltrating a drug lord's inner circle. Said drug lord, nicknamed "The Pin" is played by Lukas Haas!!!! Oh my god. I've never been so happy to see someone working again in my life. As the story becomes more and more convoluted, the more you just sit back and enjoy not only the stellar dialogue but Gordon-Levitt's hysterical/compelling performance and the sight gags. Favorites include The Pin's mom serving milk to hoodlums at 4am as well as some laugh-out-loud physical comedy whenever our hero gets his classic beat-downs. Oh... and fucking SHAFT is in this movie. That's right. Richard Roundtree in a self-referential cameo that would make Tarantino ejaculate in his pants. Out of jealousy.

I have to applaud Rian Johnson heartily. He's done something truly original and its a welcome relief to a cinephile like myself. I don't feel that this movie is flawless by any means. There are places where it drags and sound is pretty poor all around. But what do you want? The guy had no budget. What this film succeeds in doing something that big budgeted films absolutely NEVER do these days. Which is... he creates a world, creates rules for that world and then inhabits that world abiding by its rules for about 110 minutes. From its opening credits, Brick assumes you are smart enough to appreciate the story and goes from there. Any film that credits its audiences intelligence instead of negating or talking down to it deserves points. However, it can backfire. There were plenty of people in the theater during the screening I saw that most certainly did not understand what was going on and obviously gave up about 40 minutes in. But you can't blame Rian Johnson for people's attention spans or low self-esteem. Blame whoever created the Blackberry.

Bottom Line: For those of you berading me for never liking anything, I liked this. I liked it a lot.

This movie opens Friday 31 March. In select cities.