Brick

A complicated web of relationships and factions at a sprawling high school is penetrated by the main character, who has decided to find out who was behind the death of his ex-girlfriend, who by the way he doesn't consider an ex. By any measure, the incredibly stubborn Joseph Gordon-Levitt works his way up the food chain, with each challenge adding a broken nose, a busted lip, or a deciliter of his own blood. At a time when Gore Verbinski is sputtering that he had to drop an entire $40 million scene when making The Lone Ranger due to budget cuts, it's hard to fathom that some Johnson guy could make a half-million movie that offers so much. Brick isn't rushing anywhere, it savors the individual scenes, it manages to carve each character into your subconscious, and in its homage to film noir occasionally falls into deliberate satire. The film doesn't spare the viewer its main character either – Brendan is a snitch, a sociopath, and hard-headed, and we admire his tough-as-nails persona throughout the film only to have him mentally fold before its over. The noirish separation bubble of the characters from their surroundings is palpable, the timing of some of the scenes (the execution in the tunnel) is superb, and such creative delights as the high school actress changing her communication style with the main character based on the role she’s preparing for are downright delightful. I guess that doesn’t sound like an objective list of the film's qualities; Brick is kinda personal -) (24/07/2012)

An atmospheric and mysterious detective movie made in such way that makes you expect some sort of supernatural and crazy twist like “all the town folk are aliens, or robots, or clones”… and then nothing. An ordinary story wrapped in a nice directorial package, with a style that’s perhaps too overcrowded. I’m looking forward to what Johnson will make next, but this one didn’t quite do it for me. (28/03/2012)

I have a similar relationship with Brick as I do with the teenage version of Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Reese Witherspoon when it comes to a superficial and kitschy plundering of a proven classic set in a modern environment of wealthy brats. For a while, I watched Brick with interest because I expected and hoped that the screenwriter and director couldn't be serious about something like this and that Brick was a clever parody of classic American film noir. But gradually I realized that it was not a satire and that those unfortunate souls meant it seriously. It's not that I don't believe that there are bizarre freaks and rascals at American high schools who only go to school when the local drug business stagnates or for experienced, morally corrupted maidens. The problem is that the vocabulary of the characters imitated their film counterparts from the 40s and 50s, just like their behavior, and it was simply ridiculous. In fact, all the props and situations typical of film noir are there, and the viewer just waits for Philip Marlowe to appear. But when the main villain, who recently started shaving, struts around with an elegant cane intended for an older gentleman and imitates the behavior of old gangsters while his mommy serves him a sandwich, it is simply stupid, at best comical. Overall impression: 40%. I am somewhat less critical than in the case of the aforementioned Cruel Intentions, but that was a calculated affair of a big studio, whereas this is clearly a low-budget spectacle where everyone involved tries to do their best and draw the attention of the film industry as much as possible. (10/01/2009)