Movie Recommendation - Brick

Brick is the first film by writer/director Rian Johnson, a man whose unique perspective came to light in last year's Sci-Fi hit Looper and his work directing some of the best episodes of Breaking Bad.

Brick has been one of my favorite movies for years, ever since a podcast I listened to when I was about 15 told me about the then new movie. I couldn't find it anywhere for a good couple years, until one day I found one used copy in a now-defunct local video game store on their dvd rack. It's combination of high school drama mixed with Hardboiled Film Noir became an instant classic for me, and I try to expose as many people to this film as possible. Now that Looper has come out I think it's a much easier task these days, but I still try and get as many people as I can to see this movie.

It's hard for me to not spoil things when talking about Brick because my enthusiasm for it is only ever being barely kept in check, but I'll try my best to keep it succinct.

The premise of Brick is this; our main character Brendan (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a high school outcast that had a falling out with his now-estranged girlfriend Emily (played by Emilie de Ravin.) We start the film with a phone call to Brendan from Emily asking for help, and Brendan is on the case. He conducts an investigation into the events that led up to Emily asking for help, and her eventual disappearance.

The conceit of the film is that it's a Thriller film set in high school told through a Film Noir lens. All the characters talk as if they were straight out of a 1940's gangster movie, and Brendan is our down-on-his-luck Private Investigator, though in reality he's just a high school student.

The film is full of twists and turns that you won't see coming. Though fair warning, the 40's gangster speak can take some getting used to. I had to watch it with the subtitles on the first couple times to understand what was being said. I find it interesting to see how Johnson was able to so able to completely strip a 1940's Noir movie to it's essentials and replicate what those scenes in a movie made in 2005 set in a high school with teenagers. There are Femme Fetale's, Police Chiefs, interrogations of witnesses and all sorts of other Noir essentials that are somehow re-purposed into the film in some way or another. The cinematography is beautiful, the music is inventive and fits the movie to a tee and the story is engaging on multiple levels.

The film is on Netflix Streaming and even to my surprise, available to rent on Youtube. Check this film out.