{"id":2858,"date":"2007-03-11T22:36:42","date_gmt":"2007-03-12T02:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=2858"},"modified":"2007-03-11T22:36:42","modified_gmt":"2007-03-12T02:36:42","slug":"brick-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/11\/brick-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick (2005)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Like much of the neo-noir that has graced our screens both in a contemporary, and period setting, \u201cBrick\u201d begins at the end. As we\u2019ve seen in the device exemplified in \u201cSunset Boulevard,\u201d we begin right at the tail end of the mystery. Where is Brendan\u2019s ex-girlfriend Emily (Emile DeRavin is both unlikable, and heartbreaking)? What I can tell you is that most audiences for this film won\u2019t even realize that Johnson is paying homage to some of the greatest noir films ever made. From outright nods to Humphrey Bogart, and films like \u201cThe Maltese Falcon,\u201d there are many elements with the same basic premise. Johnson never fills his audience in, but they\u2019re watching noir set in modern times.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re watching high schoolers speak like twenties charlatans, and gumshoes, they\u2019re hearing dialogue that\u2019s been muttered in films like \u201cThe Big Sleep.\u201d And hopefully, they\u2019ll seek out the superior genre gems. \u201cBrick\u201d is actually a very tight little neo-noir that\u2019s more fantasy than reality. People in high school don\u2019t act like this, but then they don\u2019t need to. Johnson grabs a timeless theme and drops it onto modern suburbia where gangsters, jocks, and slutty cheerleaders play the roles of mob bosses, femme fatales, and back alley cronies. All that\u2019s missing are the fedoras from this memorable little gem. High school loner Brendan happens upon the body of his ex-girlfriend Emily one day and now he decides he must find her killer or killers. Come hell or high water.<\/p>\n

With the help of contacts like \u201cThe Brain,\u201d a wiz in almost every bit of information, and the mysterious Laura, he has to track down a mysterious persona named The Pin. But in the midst of interrogation and beatings, the trail becomes much tougher, and much deadlier. Goddamn, when is Joseph Gordon Levitt going to be graced with an Oscar? It\u2019s shocking how this cheesy child actor has been able to rise above his tag, and become one of the strongest young actors in film. From \u201cManic,\u201d to \u201cMysterious Skin,\u201d Levitt is able to take hold of his roles and steal scenes. In \u201cBrick\u201d he commands the settings and characters, and just makes the film his own. Brendan is a character of many shades.<\/p>\n

At times he\u2019s a typical noir hero, a man ruined by a dame, who ventures into the underbelly of crime, and slowly finds himself descending into madness at the cost of his own health, while also standing strong as this young man intent on finding out what happened to his ex-lover. He questions, he knocks heads, and he resists surefire temptations of the flesh as much as he can. Director Johnson puts his young cast to good use, implementing the individual talents to contribute to the overall entertainment, such as Lukas Haas who is great as the Pin, while Meagan Good is despicable yet sexy as the seductive prima donna snake Kara. Nora Zehetner as the accomplice Laura is attractive and enigmatic providing support for Brendan, even if we can never be sure what her motives are.<\/p>\n

Most memorable though is the walk-on from Richard Roundtree as a vice principal trying to foil Brendan, as well as Noah Fleiss who is over the top as the gut stomping tough named Tugger. Johnson\u2019s film surprisingly ends on a whisper, with a mystery that\u2019s not just a journey of a killer, but also a journey of a jilted lover who is still struggling to come to terms with the split of his true love. And I was satisfied. In the midst of high school jocks, and shady cheerleaders, I knew what I was watching was Johnson giving a nod to the noir genre, and \u201cBrick\u201d is a worthy homage. Great performances, an utterly entertaining script, and a story filled with twists, \u201cBrick\u201d mostly lives up to the hype.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like much of the neo-noir that has graced our screens both in a contemporary, and period setting, \u201cBrick\u201d begins at the end. As we\u2019ve seen in the device exemplified in \u201cSunset Boulevard,\u201d we begin right at the tail end of the mystery. Where is Brendan\u2019s ex-girlfriend Emily (Emile DeRavin is both unlikable, and heartbreaking)? What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[120,240,696,703,1013,1087],"class_list":["post-2858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-b","tag-crime","tag-murder","tag-mystery","tag-suspense","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}