Brick takes film noir, boils it down to it's absolute core, then puts it's own clever spin on the genre. It is a must see movie for fans of film, PERIOD. The camera work is perfect, music beautiful and atmospheric, dialogue is sharp (I recommend subtitles, or I guarantee you will miss a lot), and the acting is absolutely solid.
Rian Johnson's debut gives me hope for the future of cinema. His movie entertains you without sacrificing any of its' artistic qualities.
The plot involves the investigation of a girl's disappearance. Brandon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a hard-boiled high-school detective, has a personal stake in the case. He must navigate a smoke filled labyrinth of questions, seedy characters, and dark motives that would be appropriate for a Philip Marlowe case. I don't want to reveal more as it would ruin the fun. Side-note: the trailer is outstanding because it let's you sample the style of the movie without telling you much.
One of the great qualities of this movie is it avoids being a comedy. It would have been easier to let this be a mediocre comedy about a high-school detective. Instead Johnson goes for grit and atmosphere, and his actors play the characters straight. It's unique, it's refreshing... it must be seen. All the acting it top-notch, in particular Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brandon. I hope he takes on a role like this again.
It is difficult to review this film since I am a fan; and I don't want to spoil anything for you guys. So let's agree you will all add Brick to your Netflix cues and I will agree to have a discussion with Chris and Pierre about it on the next podcast.
deal?
UPDATE: Brick is available on the netflix instant cue.
UPDATE: Brick is available on the netflix instant cue.
-Alex
3 comments:
YES! This is what I wanted, that movie looks/sounds awesome and I've never heard of it. Watching it tonight!
I'm hoping your podcast doesn't worry about spoilers and really gets into this one cuz this is a movie that could be taken so many ways. I didn't like it because it assumed too much of the viewer. I don't want a movie that assumes I'm an idiot, but those characters were really speaking a different language, and there was just so much story crammed into such a short time. Maybe I need to see it again, I'm still wondering about a lot of things and even if it's just for the one-liners, there were a lot of clever moments and dialogue, and the sub-titles helped Big time... would've sucked to see that in the theater.
Not sure what to think about this movie, I hated it at the end because I was so unsatisfied but now I'm not sure if it's arrogant or innovative. It'll be interesting to hear the podcast. Wondering if you could break down some of the movies lexicon? That's what was infuriating, figuring out what everything meant... along with the fact that these linguistic genius's can't figure out that a 'brick' was a brick of cocaine. Maybe that's part of the joke though, that their slang is so far beyond ours that it couldn't possibly be that obvious a meaning. There are a lot of things about this movie that make me wonder if it was meant to be taken seriously, or meant as satire.
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