Brick

Horrorphile

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Brick

March 4th 2009 00:07

I’m going out on a limb here, and no doubt it will be severed rather swiftly by this movie's fans, but I finally saw Brick (2005) last night after hearing countless opinions from people as to how great it was, so of course my expectations were high. However there was a niggling modicum of doubt in mind that prevented me from seeing it when it had its initial theatrical run, and has halted me from hiring the movie until now.

That niggler’s voice turned out to be right; I found the movie over-rated. To be precise, I found the movie incredibly pretentious and infuriatingly contrived. It’s one of those movies that smacks of oh-I’m-so-cool-and-clever that it ends up strangling itself within minutes. I love a smart and stylish movie, but I’m very wary of movies that wear their technique so blatantly on their sleeve, and strut about like a screenwriter’s show-pony.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan

Brick calls itself a “detective movie”. Already writer/director Liam Johnson is trying to be cute. He’s heavily influenced by the hard-boiled detective novels of Dashiell Hammet, which were the source material which inspired the film noir genre. But Johnson doesn’t want to be so obvious as to describe his movie as “noir”. Instead he’d prefer to have his movie thought of as simply a murder mystery with a loner “cop”, or in this case, the high school outsider, Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who bears a striking similarity to Heath Ledger), trying to solve the killing of his ex-girlfriend’s.

Lukas Haas as The Pin

Brick’s major contrivance is having the entire movie centred on high school students and similarly-aged drop-outs (part of the local drug underworld). There are only two adults with speaking parts; the school’s vice principal (Richard Roundtree, best known to cinephiles as private dick John Shaft) and the mom (Reedy Gibbs) of The Pin (Lukas Haas), the cape-donned smack king. I couldn’t help but think of Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone, the mid-70s gangster spoof with the entire cast made up of kid actors playing adult roles (Jodie Foster, Scott Baio) except the irony was Bugsy Malone may have been more contrived - cute even - but it was less pretentious.

Nora Zehetner as Laura

Noah Fleiss as Tug

Brick’s other contrivance, and herein lies the movie’s main Rub, is the dialogue. All the characters talk using a lexicon of slang words and terms, most of which sounds like its been lifted straight from the detective novels of the 30s and 40s; “clam”, ‘gum”, “heel”, “skawk”, “gat”, “yegg”, “blow”, “hop”, “dose”, “duck soup”, and the eponymous “brick” (which refers to a kilo of dope, in this case, heroin). This is all fine, but for two things; combined with many of the actors mumbling their lines it makes for a very difficult time trying to understand what the fuck they are saying, and sustained for the whole movie it comes across as plain silly having Californian high school students talking like they’re Big Apple hoods and streetwise chumps. It smarts even more that writer/director Johnson is taking the whole thing very seriously. The movie is a homage, I understand that, but it’s overt stylistic is it own noose.

Emilie de Ravin as Emily

However. However, Brick does sport a strong and frequently exciting visual style. The cinematography isn’t especially noir, but Johnson’s use of composition and editing lifts the movie’s game considerably, as does the atmospheric jazz riffed score. The casting is strong, but Gordon-Levitt’s perpetual hands-in-pocket slouch really got on my nerves, as did Noah Fleiss’s seething Tugg and Nora Zehetner’s deer-in-the-headlights Laura. I was mesmerised by Meagan Good’s sultry Kara though (damn that girl’s smokin’, pity she only seems to play thankless roles as seductress or victim).

Brick Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Meagan Good

Brendan tries to garner information from siren Kara (Meagan Good)

Brick impressed the pants off all the critics when it was first released, and it won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at Sundance Film Festival. One critic cited it as being the most original movie since Donnie Darko (2001). I loathe pointless, ill-conceived comparisons like that. And as for Brick being “original”, well as a high school movie where the adolescents all act like hard-nosed, jaded adults, perhaps it’s got a novel edge, but it’s essentially homage. And I kept thinking they were gonna break into song like in Bugsy Malone, so go figure.

Brick Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matt O'Leary

Brendan seeks tidbits from The Brain (Matt O'Leary)

Brick is apparently based on a novella, and no doubt it would probably read nicely on the page, but I found it turgid as a movie. The narrative beguiled me I'll admit, but the movie’s implausible violence annoyed me, and all the characters were unlikeable or stereotypical, much of which reminded me of the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing (1990). If you loved that, then Brick will probably tickle your fancy. I’d sooner be pistol-whipped. Curiously, despite the huge critical success of Brick, director Liam Johnson has taken three years to complete a follow-up feature, an equally dialogue-impenetrable movie called The Brothers Bloom.

Everyone wears a mask, uses a guise, hides behind a veneer, talks in riddles, and offers only ambiguity

Here's the excellent trailer, which I find more compelling than the movie itself:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

7 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Damo

March 4th 2009 03:47

Bryn

Now you have put Bugsy Malone in my head and I can't get it out.

You truly are the master of horror.

I like suspense.
I like noir
I like crime and I like Donny Darko.
So any comparison would already have judging it hard.

I haven't heard of this film before.
Probably best that I see it expecting crap and be relieved rather than be disappointed.

Bugsy Malone. God I hate that film.

Comment by Bryn

March 4th 2009 04:29

Horrorphile

Damo, I'm the first person I know who hasn't been impressed with Brick. I mean, I can see its merits, but too much of the movie grated on me. If there's one thing i can't stand it's a self-consciously pretentious movie. There is a fine line though, and there are other movies which could be considered pretentious that I love. One could argue Apocalypse Now is pretentious, but that movie breathes, and Brick doesn't breathe, it holds its breath.

Comment by Tracy

March 4th 2009 05:13

Movies and Life

This film got right up my nose, I agree, it's pretentious and wanky.

Comment by Jason King

March 4th 2009 06:22

Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness

BOOOOOOOOOO - I loved this movie when I saw it a couple of years ago. I might have to hire it out again.
I really like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and I did find the film original and totally dug it. It was one of those DVD's you see in the store for months and just walk past it - I had been hiring out so much shit and then one day picked this up and kicked myself for not doing it sooner.