In a town where the Vice Principal comes kicking in your homeroom door for something you didn't do...

(Hopefully he won't come kicking in my door because of these (most likely copyrighted) images.)

I watched Brick last night, which I've been meaning to see since it came out in 2006. I picked it up a few weeks ago in a bargain bin at Kroger and I knew Joseph Gordon-Levitt, if nothing else, would make it worth the five bucks.


And he did. It was interesting to see him play such a dark character, and refreshing that the director didn't turn him into eye candy.

The A.V. Club has a good interview with (first-time) writer/director Rian Johnson, in which he says of the film, "It's obviously not realistic." But the thing is, at least in the beginning, it's not obviously unrealistic. There is little about a real-life suburban high school and gritty (for Hollywood) actors that implies "not realistic." So the first fight scene was jarring to me. When the camera abruptly and obviously cuts away from JGL's fist right before it supposedly hits Hipster Druggie's face, I attributed it to bad special effects and clumsy direction. (In fact, the Wikipedia entry explains that special effects were cheap, due to a $450,000 budget.) Although I knew ahead of time to expect a classic pulp detective story, it wasn't until at least half an hour into the movie that I got my first "not realistic" clue:

This is a high school theater dressing room? Ok, I get it, we're in film noir land now. Once I caught my footing and better understood the tone, I really started to enjoy the film.

My favorite scene is when JGL calls on "The (King) Pin" in an eerie 70s-era suburban basement. Johnson first establishes (with brutal violence and cutting dialog) that The Pin is in charge of this situation; The Pin controls everybody, including his quick-fisted, hot-tempered henchman; The Pin is NOT someone you want to mess with. Then he takes us upstairs and we meet The Pin's cheery homemaker mom, who serves JGL corn flakes with a smile and country apple juice in a nice country glass, then leaves to "do something in another room" so that the henchman can threaten JGL with a ceramic Rooster pitcher. That alone was worth five dollars.

Overall Brick only gave me three complaints:

#1. (This part is actually two half-complaints) All the women in the movie were a) hot and b) trying to bone JGL, who, honestly, is not all that boneable in this film. This irritated me until the plot progressed and I realized that they aren't just women; they're femme fatales. (So noir!) And femme fatales don't pine; they seduce. (They actually reminded me a lot of the women in Twin Peaks, who probably drew from some of the same influences.) My other half-complaint is that JGL's love interest, the keystone of the story, looks like Mary-Kate/Ashley Olsen at some angles. It just freaked me out is all.

#2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt mumbles. I realize that the speakers on my Mesozoic-era television do not create the ultimate listening experience, but I missed a lot of lines (and plot subtleties!) because, even after rewinding and replaying, I could not decipher the hardboiled dialog that kid was spouting. (Imagine him saying, tight-lipped and really fast over distracting background noises, "I didn't shake up the party to get your attention, and I'm not heeling you too hook you. Your connections could help me, but the bad baggage they bring could make it zero sum gain or even hurt me. Better coming at it clean. ")

#3. Why wasn't Alex Mack in this movie?