Brick(2005)

Brick is a the first film from director Rian Johnson and stars Joseph Gordon Levitt, Lukas Haas, and Emilie de Ravin. The tagline from IMDb reads:

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

And here's the trailer:

Wow, what a ride! I had trouble getting into the movie right away because it starts a little slow and the dialogue can be a little off-putting at first. I actually almost fell asleep. But the movie slowly drew me in and once I was along for the ride I really enjoyed the movie. This movie is basically an old school film noir detective story in the same vein as movies such as The Maltese Falcon or Sunset Boulevard but with teenagers and set primarily in a high school. It has many of the staples of film noir, including the cynical detective, the femme fetale, and slick dialogue. The cast is great across the board and although it sometimes seems like they're overacting I think that's just the way the characters in this genre feel. Rian Johnson does a solid job as the writer-director. The plot has all the twists and turns and his dialogue is snappy and left me wishing I could talk the way these characters do. His direction is great and really grounds the movie in the tone and mood of film noir. At the same time he is able to stamp the movie with a distinctive style in the way he frames shots and moves his camera around. He shoots the school in these awesome wide shots that give it this feeling of emptiness. There's also a lot of wide shots of Levitt's character as he travels around that really make you feel his isolation.

Overall I ended up really enjoying the movie once I settled in. The movie takes a bit get moving but once it does you're really happy to be along for the ride. Definitely check it out if you're a fan of classic who-done-it detective stories. This was a nice way to kick off this project. I personally rated the movie 4 stars out of the five possible on Netflix's rating system.

For my next item I'll be checking out the British tv show Luther starring Idris Elba as a police detective who specializes in catching serial killers.

Oh the phone's ringing! That's my cue.

Jose