Brick
Director: Rian Johnson
Rated: M
Nova Cinema
Now Screening


My favorite period in Hollywood film history is the initial post World War II decade that heralded the birth of film noir- and when I use the term 'film noir', I don't mean the standard thrillers that many commentators include under that definition. I mean classics like 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941), 'Double Indemnity' (1944), 'The Big Sleep' (1945), 'Murder, My Sweet' (1945) and 'Out Of The Past' (1947), films with their own unique nightmarish and almost surreal world of anti-heroes, femme fatales, their convoluted and sometimes irrelevant plots and uncertain, and fluctuating moral positions. The teen milieu is hardly home turf for film noir. Nevertheless, in 'Brick', first time filmmaker Rian Johnson brings the two together so successfully and precociously that he may have started a mix and match trend in film genres.

Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt) is the hard-boiled high school rebel who prides himself on his fierce survival skills. When his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emily de Raven) is murdered, Brendan pursues her murderer with a ferocity akin to Bogart's Sam Spade ('The Maltese Falcon') or Jack Nicholson's Jake Gittes ('Chinatown'). The school snitch, The Brain (Matt O'Leary) directs Brendan to the treacherous Kara (Meagan Good) and eventually Brendan learns that Emily was killed for double-crossing and stealing a "Brick" (cake of drugs) from a gang of school drug dealers led by The Pin (Lukas Haas). Brendan infiltrates the gang by befriending Laura (Nora Zehetner) and then provokes gang thug Tugger (Noah Fleiss), who takes him to The Pin.

Johnson stitches the noir and high school genres together by giving his characters Raymond Chandler-like dialogue and speech rhythms, and filling the plot with noir archetypes in denim camouflage. Disciples of the genre will delight in the sassy lines, duplicitous characters, barren sets and cinematography that is dull enough to substitute for black and white. The young cast revels in the genre. The closest comparison to the film probably lies in 'The Maltese Falcon', not only because the characters are all chasing a priceless treasure, but particularly in Zehetner's costuming and look which mirrors Mary Astor's immortal Brigid O'Shaughnessy.

The film works well as pastiche, but unfortunately, pastiche is as far as it goes. The familiar characters are not drawn with sufficient depth or emotion to enable the audience to connect. I did not believe Brendan's grief at Emily's loss or even sense any attraction between Brendan and Laura. In the best noir films, we identified with the antiheroes and their strengths and weaknesses. In the end, I felt nothing other than Johnson is a talented and clever director- and for a first film, that's probably good enough. What Johnson needs to do now is to show that he can move as well as entertain his audience.

Mal Byrne