“BRICK” (2005)

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O’Leary, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan, Richard Roundtree & Meagan Good
Written & Directed by Rian Johnson

Polly Staffle Rating: ****

“Film noir is the most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic.”
- Roger Ebert

Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller could learn a lot from Rian Johnson’s highly-stylized low budget film noir “Brick.” This movie is everything “Sin City” wanted to be and so much more. “Sin City” used the “shot gun” approach, bombarding us with so many characters, stories and visuals in hopes a few were able to stick. For me nothing stuck. It didn’t work at all. I hated the film and felt like it had no soul. None of the characters were likeable while the back stabbing and double crossing going on in the absolutely unrelated multiple excuses for plots made little, if any sense. It was bad filmmaking at its worse. I left the film completely disappointed and depressed like I was a character in a doom and gloom film noir world, feeling completely unexcited about the direction of these type of movies. “Brick” on the other hand, uses the same genre with wonderful results.

“Brick” is a tightly wrapped fist slowly unfolding to expose what’s hidden within. The best part is it’s not the reveal of the secret that makes the film so much fun. The puzzle pieces falling into place come secondary to the ride Johnson takes us on. “Brick” is essentially a murder mystery with Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing the part of “the everyman” doing detective work to solve a case and in the process getting in way over his head. But this isn’t an average episode of “Murder She Wrote.” The story takes place in the setting of a high school with teenagers as all the major players. The film also features a tragic love story and has elements of a classic tale of revenge. Instead of falling victim to overused clichés, Johnson’s debut wraps all the elements together for a completely different take on the crime thriller than we’ve seen before.

It also has a very Shakesprean-like feel due in part to the dialogue. I absolutely love how Johnson penned the exchanges between the characters. This is probably the biggest part of the film that makes or breaks it with audiences. Instead of having the teenagers use Ebonics or modern-day slang, they all talk in rather foreign terms. I suggest watching the film with subtitles to help understand the unique dialogue, which actually seemed to flow naturally from all the actors and never came off forced. Though it sounds as if Johnson made up words and meanings as he was writing to give his screenplay a “Dune” gimmick, he didn’t. The language was heavily influenced by the writing of Dashiell Hammett’s “hard-boiled” detective novels like “The Maltese Falcon.” In fact, Johnson says the film was more inspired by Hammett than anything else, but admits to borrowing a bit of visual flair from Sergio Leone, which explains the western vibe, and the Coen Brothers. The mish mash results of everything are extremely effective delivering what seems like Baz Luhrmann (“Romeo+Juliet”) directing a screenplay written by Stanley Kubrick (“A Clockwork Orange”) based on a book by James Ellroy (“Jackie Brown” and “L.A. Confidential”).

The story centers on Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). He can’t get over his recent breakup with Emily (Emilie de Ravin of “The Hills Have Eyes”). He loves her so much and is pained by the separation to the point that he barely functions. Brendan withdraws from all social interactions and eats lunch alone behind the school. Then he gets a strange call from Emily. She is frantic. “I screwed up really bad,” Emily said. “...The pin’s on it now.” But when Brendan sees Emily in person she pretends to be fine and tells him he has to get over her.

Soon Emily is dead. Don’t worry, I didn’t spoil anything by telling you that. We actually learn of her death in the first few frames of the movie. The story then jumps backwards two days prior and quickly loops back to that point. After discovering her lifeless body, Brendan decides not to go to the cops. He instead hides Emily and hopes to get involved in whatever it was she was into. With the help of his lone friend The Brain (Matt O’Leary), Brendan dives head first - make that face first - into his school’s dark world of drugs, stoners, gangsters and femme fatles to understand why his ex-girlfriend was taken out. I said face first because of the amount of abuse Brendan takes to his boyish good looks. He takes a beating worse than Houston Texans running back Domanick Davis and keeps bouncing back for more. The fight scenes are completely unrealistic, but a lot of fun in a Jackie Chan-kind of way as Brendan kicks some ass and also gets knocked down and thrown about. By the time the credits role, Brendan is black blue all over and coughing up blood.

Gordon-Levitt once again shows he is an extremely underrated actor. To me, he’s the best lead male under 30 and has the potential to be the next Johnny Depp. I honestly can’t figure out why Will Ferrell makes $20 million a movie and someone as remarkably good as Gordon-Levitt does not. His performance here isn’t quite the powerhouse as “Mysterious Skin,” but pulling off a role such as Brendan could go ridiculously bad in the wrong hands. Especially with lines like, “I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed.” But the moments I found myself laughing at in “Brick” were intentionally humorous, unlike the laughably bad noir films “Basic Instinct” and “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.” I also could feel Brendan’s suffering and rooted for him to get justice.

The rest of the cast is convincing as well. With character names like The Brain, Tugger and Dode, they pretty much have to be. O’Leary, who reminded me a bit of Elijah Wood, trades in his “Spy Kids Trilogy” role of Gary Giggles to play a Rubik’s cube geek, while Lukas Haas is here as a drug lord with a cane. Other highlights are Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”) as a vice principal and Heidi Fleiss’ nephew Noah as a muscle-bound goon.

The thing about any film noir is the characters are always going to be over the top. Instead of trying to give a realistic world for these people to live in, Johnson creates an alternate universe much like Quentin Tarantino does. In a Larry Clark film, much of what transpires on screen during “Brick” would not fly. But Johnson, who also edited the fantastic horror movie “May,” makes it all work. To me, this is a perfect “popcorn film.” There’s no deep meaning within, but it’s more than a fluff piece that’s nothing but pretty images. “Brick” isn’t just a cool exercise in style with a bunch of cartoon-like characters double crossing each other. The film has soul. It’s a fresh and exciting work of art that rejuvenates a genre that was in much need of help.

TALKING TO A BRICK WALL

A partial glossary of words and phrases from the film:

Bulls - Cops, fuzz, pigs, five-o, da police, boys in blue.

Copped - To steal.

Duck soup - As Jamie Oliver likes to say, “Easy peazy.”

Gum - To muck up/screw up.

Jake - Dope.

Reef worm - A zonked out zombie high on hash aka a stoner.

Take a powder - To leave. Get the hell out of there.

Impress your friends by stringing them all together in a paragraph like this:

Copping some jake off a reef worm might seem like duck soup. But you still have to take a powder quick or next thing you know, it’s all gummed up and the bulls are reining on your parade.

- CCF, August 2006