Review of Brick (2006) by Jiana W — 24 May 2010

Where do I even start? I need to rant about this movie, because that's how ridiculous it was. If this DVD didn't belong to the library I'd burn it. So stupid. Ya know, it might be a tad bit more believable if these people weren't supposed to be in high school. I constantly kept wondering, why is Brendan (played admittedly well by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wandering around talking like he should be playing an attorney on "Law & Order"? Maybe I wouldn't have had this much issue if, say, they were in college, a place where class times vary and I could more readily accept that most of the students do nothing but sit outside and wander around the campus instead of being in class. Not to mention, to be high school students, the issues and the dialogue are entirely too advanced for me to believe these are all teenagers. If Brendan was a junior or senior in college with a major in something like law and justice, it wouldn't have annoyed me because it'd be more plausible. In this film, he's just a smart-mouthed, pretty unlikable high school loner who creeps around campus, stalking students and smacking other kids around to get answers out of them.

It's not quite established what point in time this film takes place, as the characters frequently use pay phones and only once does Brendan whip out a cell phone. I think it's ridiculous that Brendan has some kind of partnership with the principal of the school and does some kinda vigilante undercover work for him or something. The adults (aka, parents) are M.I.A. in this movie. Everybody's parents are completely non-existent, save for The Pin's mother.

This movie was just WAAAAYYY too far-fetched for me to believe. By the time the end rolls around, I was scoffing at Brendan's quick, professional-esque breakdown of what he had figured out. I also found it ridiculous that an intelligent girl like Lara, who brilliantly covered her tracks the entire film, suddenly became idiotic enough to harbor a giant brick of heroin...in her freaking LOCKER at school. Seriously? Of all the "mis-steps" she could have made, this was the dumbest one they could conjur up to bring this farce to a close. I just... I can't believe this crap. It's making me mad just writing about it.

The "writer", if he can be called that, should have either bumped up the ages of the characters to college-aged kids, OR he just shouldn't have made Brendan so unbelievably professional in the way he speaks, carries himself, and barks orders to his peers. We're supposed to be sold on the fact that Brendan is just a teenager; a high school kid. He can be extremely intelligent and mature but the audience still needs to be able to believe he (and his peers, for that matter) are in high school, which you simply can't when watching this.

Next time this clown decides to write about kids he should consider actually spending time around some. Ridiculous waste of film.