Brick (2005)
Written & Directed by Rian Johnson
Brick doesn’t need my praise. (Nor does Brick from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, for that matter.) It’s a great film with an innovative premise: film noir detective mystery set in a modern high school. It’s a brilliant concept, which even if poorly executed would have me going.
Lucky for all of us that Brick is in fact flawlessly executed, from script through direction and performances and post-production. If you haven’t seen it, then you should. If you have seen it, it’s time to see it again. It’s a really well-made film with exceptional storytelling.
So, we begin with Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), our erstwhile detective reconstructing the events leading up to his finding his ex-girlfriend, Emily Kostich (Emilie de Ravin) dead in front of a storm drain tunnel. Emily had called Brendan with a cryptic message that at first made my brain explode with its arcanity until it was clear to me that it wasn’t because I had missed some generational leap in lingo but that even Brendan was puzzled as to what it was about. Brick, Pin, Tug, Poor Frisco. And the lingo doesn’t end there. Johnson really outdid himself internalizing the classic detective lingo and I love it.
I also love how the film keeps undercutting the grown up aspects of the detective story by reminding us of the setting. The authority figure isn’t a cop but the Assistant Vice Principal Trueman (I’m guessing Roosevelt is still the Principal.) And who is Assistant V.P. Trueman? None other than Richard Roundtree. Shaft is the Assistant V.P. at this high school. Things must really be tough at this place if even Shaft can’t keep things in line. Brendan has been working with Trueman, but Brendan is a freelancer, doing his own thing and in this case it’s personal and he needs to get to the bottom of who killed his ex before the real authorities discover her body and put the kibosh on the whole shebang. At any rate, Brendan goes to the high school drama department to get some info from Kara (Meagan Good) who is the queen diva of the theatre crowd and is involved in all kinds of unsavory things. Brendan is assisted along the way by The Brain (Matt O’Leary), a nice guy who wears glasses so thick that the Whataburger announcer will surely be using them as a metaphor for the latest monstrous burger concoction to come our way smothered in jalapenos and cheese. My personal favorite high school intrusion moment is after we’ve met The Pin (Lukas Haas) who is a club-footed drug dealer living in his mom’s basement. He’s referred to as “old” because he’s 26. And while I usually resist using the word “emo” or “Goth,” The Pin doesn’t just wear all black but he’s also got a cape, so make your own judgments.
The Pin: You read Tolkien?
Brendan: What?
The Pin: You know, the Hobbit books?
Brendan: Yeah.
The Pin: His descriptions of things are really good. He makes you wanna be there.
I think this bit does as much to remind you that even The Pin is just a kid as the scene where The Pin’s mom offers Brendan some breakfast cereal.
So, if Emily is the dame in trouble, then the femme fatale is Laura Dannon (Nora Zehetner) who we are introduced to at a costume party which excuses the chanteuse outfit nicely. Brendan knows that this dame knows something about what happened to Emily, so he has to get close to Laura—maybe too close.
Meanwhile, he follows leads that take him to the hop-heads who hang out behind the local diner (Coffee and Pie, Oh My). Turns out Emily’s new boyfriend is Dode (Noah Segan) who looks like he’s Kenickie and Rizzo’s grandson. Emily insists that Dode is a good friend, but Brendan can’t help disliking him.
And then there’s Tug (Noah Fleiss) the muscle man for The Pin. Tug is going off the rails and as Brendan points out to The Pin, muscle you can’t control is a liability.
At any rate, the story takes its twists and turns and Brendan sets up his revenge for Emily’s death, while trying to figure out the root of the caper and just to let you know that the world is grey Brendan manages to get innocent people hurt as well as the guilty and the really guilty.
I’d usually be all about the spoilers, but I’ll leave the ending of this one alone because it suffices to say that it resolves the story nicely and I liked the story. There's a lot to be discussed here.
In short, Brick is a brilliant neo-noir piece. I wish there were more films like this. I really do. It’s uncompromising. It’s dark and hardboiled and every other adjective you could think of. And the music is just really great, too.
If the surest mark of success is imitation, then the surest mark of singular brilliance is the complete paralysis of imitation. And this is my real disappointment with the Brick effect. This film should open up the floodgates of its own style and genre, but it hasn’t. I can understand why Rian Johnson wouldn’t want to make another film in this style—because then he’d be that guy. But it would be nice to see people attempt to make more films like this. It would be a damned sight better than the millions of Transformers clones (I’m looking at you, Transmorphers!) or whatever. Honestly, I’d be willing to sift through the piles of bad imitations of Brick to find the couple that may be gems in and of themselves. That’s how new genres are created, after all, and it would be a welcome break from the onslaught of vampires, zombies, slashers and movies about dogs named after composers to see a new genre of noir high school dramas. Here’s the hurling of the gauntlet. Make your own damn bricks, please.
Bonus Features
1. Deleted & Extended Scenes with Introductions by Director Rian Johnson
1. The Moon and I
This is the full version of Laura’s spoken word and piano bit from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado which is our introduction to her character at the big party. I can appreciate the cut for the final version of the film, but it’s nice to have the full version as a special feature.
2. Pie House Rat
An extended version of the scene with Brendan and Dode behind the pie diner. “You’re on the bright side of dim, Dode. I thought you had this half handled I’d be eating lunch.”
3. Economics
A phone conversation with Brendan and The Brain.
4. You Trust Me Now?
The original version of a scene in the car with Brendan and Laura that was reshot before Sundance.
Brendan: What’s your angle in all this?
Laura: I don’t know. You know, I’m usually pretty sharp but maybe I see what you’re trying to do for Em, trying to help her and I don’t know anybody who would do that for me.
Brendan: And now you are dangerous.
5. Heaven
A fantasy scene where Brendan imagines seeing Emily floating over the football field after Dode knock him out. A little too strange for this film, unless they had set up Brendan’s character as prone to NyQuil induced hallucinations.
6. New Orleans
The original bed scene with Brendan and Laura. It certainly eliminates the ambiguity about whether Brendan and Laura had sex. They do and afterwards they have a nice chat. “I have a car. I have an aunt in New Orleans. She wouldn’t care.” It’s a good scene.
7. Kara Plays Her Hand
An extension of the mirror scene with Brendan and Kara with Kara trying to blackmail Brendan.
8. A Dirty Word
The original version of the field scene. The final version of the scene was done in low-angle closeups to conceal the fact that the formerly barren field had been covered in Astroturf in the intervening months between the original shoot and the reshoot. A continuous shot that makes for interesting scenery, but I like the closeups in the final version.
2. The Inside Track: Casting the Roles of Laura and Dode
1. Nora Zehetner’s audition from May 2003. She does a decent read.
2. Noah Segan’s audition from May 2003. He looks a bit strung out, but it works.
These are both very brief and without anything in the way of context.
3. Commentary with Rian Johnson, Noah Segan, Nora Zehetner, Producer Ram Bergman, Production Designer Jodie Tillen, and Costume Designer Michele Posch
A very informative and lively commentary, though it’s done with the host and rolling guest speaker talk show style of commentary that I don’t much care for. Noah Segan does a great impersonation of Ram Bergman. Anyhow, this film was scraped together by plucky upstarts and Rian Johnson managed to shoot most of it in his old high school in San Clemente, California.
Trailers
1. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
An odd choice for a trailer here.
2. Slither
An odder choice, but I love this movie.
3. Inside Man
“This ain’t no bank robbery!” I’ve seen this trailer a million times and I still don’t care what Clive Owen is really up to.
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