'Brick' Film Review

Brick: An Addiction

Paranoia, insecurity, threat, sedition, vulnerability – ‘Brick’ captures the very essence of Noir. Director, Rian Johnson, newcomer on the Indie movie scene, combines the typical Noir detective storyline with the teenage zeitgeist of today. Packed with ambiguity, it entices you from the very start.

A girl lies, her hair splayed out on the chilled concrete, cold water trickling over her limp body. She’s dead, and a boy, helpless, watches on, his face contorted in distress.

Two days earlier, Brendan, (Joseph Gordon – Levitt), receives a worried phone call from his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin), who mutters about ‘the Brick’, ‘the Pin’, ‘Tug’ and ‘Frisco’. Oblivious to what these words mean, he goes in search of her and sees her once before she disappears. He doesn’t care for his own wellbeing, and goes to extreme lengths to find out the truth - finding Emily dead doesn’t stop him in his tracks. As he shuffles along, shoulders hunched, through what seems to be an uninhabited town in the middle of nowhere, he uncovers more and more about the corrupt society he lives in, and wipes away the facades that many of his contemporaries display. Maintaining a convoluted and labyrinthine storyline, Brick leaves you lost in the dark, constantly withholding information that you want to know.

Like Noir, ‘Brick’ portrays heroes, villains, a Femme Fatale and a sidekick. However the ‘Brick’ cast have not imitated these stereotypical characters, but portrayed them in a new, updated light – a bunch of teenagers. We have already been introduced to our protagonist Brendan, a scruffy high school student who, ostracised by nearly everyone in society, takes on the role of the solipsistic detective. His dry wit and slap stick comedy are a good break from the emotionally disturbed side we see most of the time – Levitt does a good job in updating the protagonist, but no one can be in the same league as the slick, smooth talking Detective Spade (Humphrey Bogart) in the Maltese Falcon.

You will never guess what ‘Brick’ has in store – not one, not two, but three Femme Fatales! Laura (Nora Zehetner) may look like porcelain – but don’t be fooled, she’s hard to crack. With a similar manipulative character to that of our favourite Femme Fatale, Mary Astor from The Maltese Falcon, she wraps everyone around her finger with her high pitched, floaty voice (the most irritating thing you will ever hear). She gets away with anything and, like old time Noir, makes the male characters question their identity. There is also drama queen Kara – the girl with many faces, and the recently deceased Emily. With so many Femme Fatales no wonder the town is in disarray.    

The local crime lord in Brick, ‘The Pin’ (Lukas Hass), dressed in a shadowy, dark cloak, holding a staff of ‘power’, seems to have been dragged from the 1940s. An interesting twist, but at odds with the other characters. But, you wouldn’t expect Brick to have only one villain now, would you? With a nihilist, albeit mcCarthyist attitude, our second villain, Tug the drug dealer, walks around, gun in hand, in his ‘wife beater’ vest. Sounds like the true embodiment of evil in our world today, but his inner struggle is enough to make anyone pity him. Undoubtedly, the funniest part of the film is when we assume there will be a violent confrontation between protagonist and villain – instead we get a pleasant sit around the kitchen table, with orange juice, and of course the Pin’s mum. Very dry, Johnson!

A constant melancholic atmosphere is usually not the best recipe for film making. But combine it with dizzying camerawork and fast paced momentum and you’ve got yourself a pulse racer. Steve Yenlin does an excellent job with the cinematography of Brick, using different lighting and settings to create pathetic fallacies. Accompanied by disorientating, harsh instrumentation, the breathless discussions between characters are entwined with panic and are almost inaudible. This sinks us further into the murky tunnel of ‘whodunit’, blurring the thin line between good and evil.

So the trilby hats and trench coats iconography has gone, but in its place are Potter glasses, jock jackets and ‘wife beater’ vests – something that the younger audience can relate to. Winning nine Independent Film Awards, and making a pretty sizable profit, it is no doubt that Brick is a success. The way Rian Johnson has mortared this particular Brick is not for everybody - but for most the addiction will last a lifetime. It sucks you in and you’ll feel like you’re drowning – but you definitely wouldn’t want to fight it. Unmissable.