Odd as it may seem, the mainstay characters of film noir can be seen reflected in contemporary high school culture. The big, tough muscle bound thugs? Football players and wresters. The seductive nightclub singer? Leading lady of the high school theater production. The law enforcement officials who tend to be corrupt, ineffectual, or both? The school administration. The powerful, self-serving schemers with all the behind-the-scenes power? The rich, snobby kids. The weasely little snitches? Well, they're weasely little snitches in high school, too. And as for the misunderstood loners who play the central role in every film noir tale? Every high school is chock full of misunderstood loners just waiting to for the chance to be the hero in their own personal story.
Granted, murder mysteries aren't exactly a common occurrence in a typical high school as they are in the world of hardboiled detective fiction, but movies offer us an escape for the mundanity of everyday life. And it's just one such murder, or rather, the low-key discovery of a murdered student's body in an abandoned drainage ditch, that spurs the neo noir action of writer/director Rian Johnson's 2005 debut Brick.
The film opens up as our protagonist, the brooding outsider Brandon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a solidly dark and brooding turn that will surprise viewers who only remember him from 3rd Rock from the Sun) finds the dead body of his estranged ex-girlfriend Emily. Even though he hadn't seen her in over two months, his lingering feelings for her prompt him to embark on a quest to discover who's responsible for her death. Aided by an acquaintance nicknamed "the brain," who, despite being another of the schools loners knows all of the school's juicy gossip, Brendan dives headfirst into the labyrinthine world of the school's drug users and dealers, all pointing towards a mysterious young supplier known only as "The Pin" (as in "Kingpin"). He charms his way into exclusive, popular crowd parties, picks fights with the potheads and the football stars (and the pothead football stars), muscles his way into the confidence of the school's drug suppliers, and manipulates every opposing faction of the school, including the assistant principal, against one another in an effort to unravel the truth about Emily's fate.
Watching Brick is like glancing over a course syllabus for "elements of film noir 101." There's plenty of low-angle shots, dramatic use us outside lighting through windows or against mirrors, and scenes shrouded in shadows. Brandon's startling revelations are unveiled in surreal flashes of dreams. The story opens up with the discovery of Emily's body before jumping back in time a few days, catching up to that discovery, and then moving on to the aftermath. Brendan spends plenty of time starting fights only to get beaten up and spend some time unconscious, often on purpose because it's the easiest means to his investigative ends. Characters speak in such a carefully guarded manner that the truth of what they say in early scenes doesn't become clear until much later in the film, making repeat viewing almost a necessity for someone who wants to completely understand the film's intricate plot. And speaking of the conversations, the speech is liberally sewn with a jargon of hip doublespeak to create a tough-guy veneer of cool and a sense of weary worldliness. Consider this conversation between Brandon and Dode, one of the schools better-known stoners:
Kara told me you know where Em's at. Uh huh. And why are you looking for Em? She asked for my help. Uh huh. Listen man, I've got plenty on my plate without dealing with some jilted ex. It's not about that. Whatever it's about, act smarter than you look and drop it. Where is she? She's with me, and right now that's the best place for her. Leave the low life to the low lifers and dangle. You're on the bright side of dim, Dode, but if I thought you had this half-handled I'd be eating lunch. Where's she at?
Or his conversation with an assistant principal to whom he's acted as a snitch in the past:
You know what I'm in if the wrong yeg saw me pulled in here? What are you in? No. And no more of these informal chats - if you've got a discipline issue with me write me up or suspend me and I'll see you at the parent conference. Hold it, I could write you up for talking back to a VP. For looking at me in a threatening way. I'd exercise a little more tact, Mr. Frye. You can't pull a play like that unless I need you for something. So do I? Maybe. So maybe you're gonna need me too. Maybe. Alright, I need you off my back completely for a few weeks. There might be some heat soon. If it's something I can't cover, I won't go to bat for you. If I get caught like that it's curtains anyway - I couldn't have brass cutting me favors in public. I'm just saying now so you don't come kicking in my homeroom door once trouble starts.
At times the vernacular comes on so thick it'd be nice to have a glossary to follow along with while watching the film. And it does feel a little artificial. Much as I'd love to see a high school where students actually talk like that, no students in the real world are nearly that hip when it comes to off-the-cuff verbal swordplay. Artificial it may be, but it gives the film an unmistakable sense of style and harkens back to the highly stylized film noir classics of the forties like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon.
The biggest selling point of Brick is that it's a hard-boiled film noir detective story centered around teenage characters. Without some care on Rian Johnson's part, that gimmick could have ended up as the film's only selling point, leaving us with a cheesy genre experiment in the vein of the Jodie Foster/Scott Baio vehicle Bugsy Malone. Fortunately for us, Johnson's story far outshines the gimmick. We've get deep, complex, compelling characters, clever dialogue at a quick fire pace, an intricate plot full of intrigue that peals back layer after layer of misinformation and misdirection to lead us tantalizingly towards the truth and reveals just enough at just the right times to make repeated viewings a rewarding treat. Some may criticize the casting, with only one of the featured actors being young enough to still be in high school when the movie was filmed, but the characters are all rich and compelling enough that the mature appearance of the actors fades away into the background before it can even start to be a distraction.
Brick's low, half-a-million dollar price tag is evident in a number of ways, such as its limited shooting locations and minimal number of speaking parts, but it's far from what I'd call a cheap movie. It's economical filmmaking at its finest. With all the vapid big budget fluff that's come out lately, Brick is a breath of fresh air that reminds us that explosions and action sequences are no substitute for solid acting, distinctive style, and a compelling story.
Brick, while taking its cues and its verbal style from the novels of Dashiell Hammett, also honors the rich cinematic tradition of the hard-boiled noi...More at HotMovieSale.com
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