Review of Brick (2006) by Dylan C — 14 Oct 2013

You know that kid on the block who's getting some good press lately? That kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun? The good lookin fella from Inception and 500 Days of Summer. Well it turns out he was part of a criminally overlooked crime film back in 2005, one that is probably the best example of old-fashioned, hard-boiled detective stories in a long time....oh! By the way, it all takes place in a suburban highschool setting.

How writer/director Rian Wison (who teamed with Joseph Gordon Levitt again for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Looper) came up with this I will never know; yet, it all makes me think why nobody else thought of it before. Think of all the gritty stories that can float around a highschool. All the drug dealing, mystery, and promiscuity, while juvenile to most adults who have "outgrown" such shenanigans, the parallels between highschool drama and realworld grit is undeniable. Besides, throw in a murder mystery into any setting, and it's already a bit more adult than what most teenagers deal with on a regular basis.

If you want something different, look no further than this throwback to works like Chinatown and any given Bogart noir, which is just self-aware enough of its unusual premise to be both tongue-in-cheek and downright harrowing and get away with it.

And, if for nothing else of course, see it for Joseph. His performance is outstanding. This kid was going places long before he nabbed a place with Christopher Nolan.