Review: Brick
I caught Brick with my cousin last night. Krystal, from The Cicak, recommended this movie to me.
When I first caught the trailer, I was suitably impressed. The storyline goes something like this: This outsider cool dude, called Brendan Frye, gets a frantic call from his ex-gf, Emily. A few days later, he finds her dead. Consumed with vengence, and equiped with a cool, searing intelligence, he embarks on an investigation of his own on the cause of Emily’s death. The trail leads him to encounters with various enigmatic characters, who although are all still high school teens, speak, act and look like staple characters of 1940’s hard-boiled detective noir films. A bit like the cartoon “Filmore”, but much more mature.
The first thing that hits you in this film is the peculiar way in which all the characters speak. All talk in a tough, detective/mobster kind of way, again apparently following the style of old 40’s noir films such as “The Maltese Falcon”. It takes a little getting used to, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what they’re saying. But if you presevere, it can get rewarding.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, playing Brendan, is terrific as the intelligent, hard-boiled teen. He has came a long way from “10 Things I Hate About You”, and is definitely an upcoming actor to look out for. His brainy sidekick, “The Brain”, is also a very lovable character, being Brendan’s inside man on school developments, and supplying him with intel. Basically, all of the actors in there are pretty solid.
I must mention the camera-work in this film. I loved it. It’s pretty unique, reminiscent of “Donnie Darko” in style, in that it utilises a lot of wide shots of the locations. It makes you feel like you’re an observer from afar. The director also seems to love capturing the glare of the bright sun in many of his scenes.
One thing to note: Although Brick is set in a high school with high school kids, there is almost no semblence of anything similar to other high school flicks in here. You never get to see Brick’s parents or family, his teachers, or even his class. The high school isn’t really the ’setting’ of this film then. It’s a bit misleading in this regard. Instead, all you see are plenty of the characters itself, sparse spaces where confrontations take place, and an empty football field.
Overall, I like the unique style of this film very much. Not quite in Donnie Darko’s unsettling league, but a very good attempt nevertheless.
Verdict: 
1/2
Hehe, you watch Filmore too! Cool cartoon eh? Haha, anyway, ‘Brick’ do sound like an interesting movie according to you, and I might check it out sometime. In the meantime, keep having fun over there yeah.
Comment by junhoe — August 13, 2006 @ 11:01 am
Hey there junhoe! Yeah, I watched Filmore a bit, mostly because my brother does. And yeah, you should check out Brick. It’s a pretty original and thoroughly refreshing film. I highly recommend it
Comment by sigma — August 15, 2006 @ 1:14 pm