Reviews of Brick

School, drugs and cool punchlines (greek review)

Posted : 1 year, 3 months ago on 3 September 2008 03:20 (A review of Brick)

O Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) ανακαλύπτει τη φίλη του Emily (Emilie de Ravin) νεκρή στην είσοδο ενός αγωγού αποχέτευσης. Και αποφασίζει να βρει ποιος την έβαλε εκεί, ποιος τράβηξε την σκανδάλη και για ποιο λόγο. Και δεν έχει σκοπό να σταματήσει αν δεν το ανακαλύψει. Και αγνοώντας το γεγονός ότι στο δρόμο για τις απαντήσεις που ψάχνει θα υποχρεωθεί να κάνει slalom ανάμεσα από ναρκωτικά, Kingpins, όπλα, μοιραίες γυναίκες και υπερβολικά cool διαλόγους.

Το περίεργο βέβαια είναι πως όλοι οι πρωταγωνιστές είναι έφηβοι που φοιτούν σε λύκειο της Νότιας Καλιφόρνια και έχουνε πρότυπα συμπεριφοράς και ομιλίας τον Humphrey Bogart και την Mary Astor από το Γεράκι της Μάλτας (1941). Ο δημιουργός Rian Johnson, στην πρώτη του ταινία, είναι βαθιά επηρεασμένος από τα αστυνομικά μυθιστορήματα των 30’s και τα film noir των 40’s. Και αποφασίζει να μεταφέρει το μαγευτικό κλίμα των παραπάνω στη σύγχρονη κοινωνία και στον μικρόκοσμο της εφηβικής ζωής, με τρόπο άκρως πειστικό – μετά το αρχικό μούδιασμα- και με τεχνική που προδίδει βαθιά μελέτη του είδους που θέλει να εκπροσωπεί. Και ακριβώς επειδή η μελέτη κρύβει σεβασμό και πάθος, ο Johnson δημιουργεί ένα φιλμ με αποστομωτική ατμόσφαιρά και επιβλητικούς χαρακτήρες, οι τελευταίοι εξαιρετικά σκιαγραφημένοι από τα φρέσκα πρόσωπα που πρωταγωνιστούν. Οι ερμηνείες είναι σοβαρές και αδιαμφισβήτητες δίνοντας ένα τόνο παράλογου ρεαλισμού στα διάφορα «the ape blows or I clam» που εκστομίζουν με ρυθμό πολυβόλου. Ντυμένο με την κατάλληλη μουσική υπόκρουση και μονταρισμένο σε ένα Mac το Brick είναι η υπενθύμιση που χρειάζεσαι για να ενημερώνεσαι συχνά πυυκνά για την επόμενη ταινία του Rian Johnson.

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Failure.

Posted : 1 year, 10 months ago on 9 February 2008 10:25 (A review of Brick)

Ambition might sometimes carry a film a long way, and hopefully the film itself will take it the rest of the way. Other times, once the ambition ends, the movie is left face down, and in the case of Brick, it’s the latter. It’s basically about a guy trying to figure out why his ex-girlfriend asked him for help, because she’s recently turned up dead. It’s a mystery-solving detective film that pays homage to classic film-noir, but has the unfortunate setting of high school life, including a full cast of teenagers.

The movie in and of itself isn’t bad. The acting is decent (for teenagers), the plot isn’t anything new but not so boring that it wouldn’t work, it’s shot well, edited well, and the dialogue is great. The only problem is that it’s acted out by seventeen year olds. It doesn’t exactly sound like a huge set back, as it is a neat idea, but it fails miserably and leaves the movie absolutely stained with unintentionally laughably bad scenarios; such as a kid sporting a cape, walking with a cane (without actually needing one), and having a driver (presumably his mother) take him here and there in a van. The van has a lamp in it too, in case the dome light isn’t functional. This adult-themes life style and dialogue that is presented in a teenage environment works when it’s comical, ala Rushmore, but in Brick it’s not meant to be taken lightly. In fact, I’m unsure what the tone of the film is supposed to be, but it should have been marketed as a comedy.

It might have worked a little bit better if there was at least one child that wasn’t so keen to the fast paced manner in which people spoke in the forties, or maybe didn’t know at least one obscure phrase or figure of speech. But no, every student in this very lenient high school is like a smaller, less talented, hipster reincarnation of Humphrey Bogart. When we do see an actual adult (there are only two), they don’t appear to be bothered by anything. One, a parent, politely serves juice to her son and his friends, who are literally everywhere. The other, a vice principal, or a VP (that’s what they’re called), is almost threatened by the students, and allows them to do virtually whatever they want. As if the student and the VP are rival police officers, they fight and bicker, and make demands. Anybody under the age of eighteen may be moved by scenes like this, but everybody over the age of eighteen should see how ridiculous it is. Even the thug, who is white and looks like a D student, or a shop class enthusiast, is hip to all the intensely asinine conversations.

Something else that bothered me was how inconsistent it is. I might be simply nit-picking, but the movie sort of opens the doors to my complaint. The entire film, all the characters are so hip to knowledge, and info, and it seems to be such a valuable currency, and everybody wants something for it, but nobody has a cellular phone. If I’m to believe this is a high school in California, I’m never going to believe it if only one person has a cellular phone (which they borrowed from their mother). Instead, people still use and call payphones, and write notes that tell you to be here and this time. Even when a student is killed, and is missing for several days, there are no police interviews, no sort of investigation, nothing. The body just sits around and rots, I guess.

Another very silly problem that I had was when the main character starts having coughing fits. He doesn’t smoke, and seems fine, so they really come out of nowhere. He then begins to have a hard time walking, and seems very weak. Eventually we find out it’s because he has “swallowed a lot of blood”. Well, I’m somebody that has actually had the misfortune of swallowing a large portion of their own blood, so I know what happens. I also have been under the stress and displeasure of doing strenuous work with little to no sleep, and coughing fits and this insane weakening of the body isn’t a side effect. Especially when we’re talking about somebody who is probably seventeen years old. There are some aspects of films that I may not believe, but I don’t know any better, so it really doesn’t matter. But something like this in my mind is total common knowledge. Swallowing your own blood doesn’t cause coughing fits, nor does it make somebody have a hard time walking. I think at own point he collapses and blacks out. It’s just one of those things that is so obviously overblown, it doesn’t work within a “serious” film. It just comes off goofy and laughable.

There isn’t much else to say. It feels like a total fantasy world that I simply can’t allow myself to believe in. There is no balance to make me believe it’s feasible, and the convoluted plot doesn’t help. By the end of the movie, any questions you may or may not have are answered by a little monologue given by our lead detective that explains everything, ala Vanilla Sky, a technique I despise as it either belittles the audience, or admits to having a poorly executed story. In the end, I felt like I was watching an extended, live action episode of Rugrats, or Muppet Babies. Some people argue that it’s a great interpretation of film-noir, going so far as to create a genre: neo-noir. But what if it were 12 year olds? Would it still be a great interpretation? What if it were 8 year olds? The point is, I think believe age matters with this movie. Once you’re years older than the entire cast, it no longer remains as an ambitious project, it becomes a parody. If that was the point, then bravo, but I doubt it was. See this film if you want to laugh, but don’t see it for any other reason.

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Nice indie flick

Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago on 22 May 2007 09:51 (A review of Brick)

I think I'm going to have to watch this again as I'm sure it deserves more than a 7/10, but I just didn't hear enough of it to make complete sense of everything that was going on (hearing problems).

I really liked the noir-mystery style of the film, and the acting was good from everyone. I was surprised to see a couple of more well-known faces in the cast (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emilie de Ravin) but I think they did a good job of their respective roles and I'm glad that it was kept to a more indie feel with a less famoous cast. The camera shots and amplified sounds were also quite nice features, and definitely an improvement on attempts in other indie film (*points at Elephant*).

I'll be watching this again when I get the chance.

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great modern muder-mystery film-noir

Posted : 2 years, 7 months ago on 4 May 2007 07:41 (A review of Brick)

Take a classic 1940s film noir murder mystery and throw it into modern times, make it revolve around drugs and high school kids, add some awesome handheld camera cinematography, and you have 'Brick'. I thought the acting was completely stellar from everyone involved, although the teens seemed a lot more mature and intelligent than real teens found in today's high schools. I think it would've been a 10/10 film if it was set on college grounds instead of high school environment. That's only part that felt a bit unrealistic.

This film needs multiple viewing, almost like Memento or 21 Grams. The dialogue is overwhelming, lots of clues are around, and there's a lot of characters and motives flying around that it could be too much to fully absorb in one viewing. I watched it late at night, and had to shut it off half way, and re-watch at earlier time next day, as I felt I was missing too much of the plot (and I did miss a lot from the first night).

Overall, a solid 8/10, but I'll see how I feel after one or two more viewings (movie is such a thinking movie that it makes me want to see it again). But it will always be kept away from the 10/10 rating in my books because of the 'high school' aspect of it.

I also loved the subtle humor in some spots, such as the mother of the drug king pin giving everyone fresh juice while all his gang members are waiting at his house. It's funny coz it's true. Most drug dealers I knew acted like thugs but still lived in their mother's basement. :)

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Brick review

Posted : 2 years, 8 months ago on 23 March 2007 05:41 (A review of Brick)

I really enjoyed this film. I hadn't heard much about it before I saw it and was a little bit surprised to see so many people complaining about how hard the dialogue was to follow. To me the dialogue fitted the theme of the film perfectly. Essentially this film follows children who are acting far older and more intellectual than they actually are. There are certain scenes which seem to remind you that the main characters in this gritty detective fest are only teenagers and they are often quite hilarious.

The main character was extremely likable in my opinion, as were most of the characters in fact. Don't let the dialogue put you off, it's pretty easy to follow with a little bit of thought. The setting is great and the fact that the film focuses on such a young cast adds that extra feeling of unease and confusion that are musts in the noir genre.

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A decent noir throwback

Posted : 3 years ago on 4 December 2006 07:24 (A review of Brick)

I've read about this movie for quite some time, but never got around to watching it. Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays Brenden, a high-school student who attempts to solve the killing of his ex-girlfriend. You quickly notice that this is no ordinary teen murder mystery, it plays homage to the old "noir" films that were so prevalant in the 40's and 50's. The film style, plot twists, and somewhat over-the-top characters (see Lukas Haas Pin character for example) are done very well, however if you didn't know anything about the movie going into it, you'd probably think it was a little too hard to comprehend. The dialogue is hard to follow at times, but again this is a throwback film in some sorts, so it may require multiple viewings to truly grasp the meaning of many scenes.

I particularily liked how the movie used this type of film style in a setting like a high school in suburbia, where you might not think would work so well. It was pulled off as well as it could be, but again the characters were just too unbelievable in many aspects. What makes me appreciate the film though is how many great actors and great directors there are as shown in this movie that are not afraid to produce a film that clearly goes against the grain.


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