Movie Review - Brick (2005)

Brick (2005)

Director: Rian Johnson

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas

 

Before beginning this review, there is a confession I must make:  I'm a JGL-aholic.  JGL, in case you don't know, is 31-year old actor/performer Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  I admire the dude.  I like his acting style.  I like the way he dresses.  I like the way he sings.  I like that he started his own company, something called hitRECord, and it sounds really cool (the picture of JGL on the homepage for hitRECord is simply classic.  Could he look any more charmimg/smarmy?).  But most of all, as a movie fan, I admire his choice of roles.  JGL is my modern day Edward Norton.  In the 90s, Norton, at the time my favorite actor, had a legendary (to me) stretch of appearances in movies that were simply awesome.  From 1995 to 2005, Norton starred in (among another films): Primal Fear, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Rounders, American History X, Fight Club, The Score, 25th Hour, and The Illusionist.  All great movies, and vastly different in genre and/or tone.  Norton at the time struck me as an actor who was willing to try anything, eager to challenge himself, and did an excellent job in whatever role he took on.

At the moment, I consider JGL to be in the midst of a similar stretch.  Granted, it helps his cause that he seems to have been integrated into the Christopher Nolan mafia of actors who often appear in Nolan films, but the guy has really put together an impressive filmography at a relatively young age: The Lookout (which I haven't seen but is apparently excellent), (500) Days of Summer (the rare chick flick or rom-com I can tolerate, although it is unapologetically hipster-ish), Inception, 50/50.  And look at the list of movies he will be appearing in within the next year or so: The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Lincoln.  Clearly, JGL is a rising star in the movie industry.  And that makes me happy.  But before Gordon-Levitt was starring in big-budget productions directed by the likes of Steven Spielberg, he was a young former child actor (remember 3rd Rock from the Sun?), making his name in a number of critically successful indie flicks.  Brick is one of those, made for only around $500,000.  Despite that, it stars a number of familiar faces, mostly young actors (aside from Gordon-Levitt himself, among them are Emilie de Ravin from Lost, Meagan Good, and Lukas Haas), and achieved considerable critical claim, winning a Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

As you can see, I had a number of reasons to be drawn to Brick.  It stars my boy JGL.  It's critically acclaimed.  And last but not least, the movie boasts a pretty quirky concept: it is a contemporary Noir film placed in the setting of an American high school.  In researching this film, the phrase Noir appeared again and again in descriptions of the movie.  This movie is, by all accounts, an homage to classic Noir novels and films of the 1930s and 40s.  These are works like The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key (both written by Dashiell Hammett).  They are hardboiled detective stories, featuring tough, fatalistic characters like Sam Spade:  The archetypical fedora and pinstripe suit wearing detective, often found monologuing stoically in the midst of a rainstorm.  There are usually guns, crime, and a mysterious yet alluring female character involved as well.  You can see how it is both an intriguing and brilliant idea to transplant all these concepts into a high school setting.  I was intrigued by the concept, but as a novice to both the hardboiled detective and Noir genres, I can't comment on how effectively this movie pays homage to them.

One thing I can comment on is how effectively the movie functions as a movie.  And, unfortunately, I found it a little lacking. Throughout the movie, I couldn't help but continually find my mind drifting to thoughts of the TV series Veronica Mars, coincidentally one of my favorite shows of all-time.  Veronica Mars began its run in 2004, just one year before Brick was released.  And like Brick, the word Noir often surfaced in descriptions of Veronica Mars.  The similarities don't end there.  Both Brick and Veronica Mars took place in high schools (although Veronica Mars actually shows those high school kids doing high school kid things, whereas there is not so much as a classroom sighting throughout Brick).  Both feature impressively witty and sharp dialogue, delivered by teenage characters.  Both feature these young adults in decidedly adult situations and making adult decisions.  However, Veronica Mars takes the subversion of the Noir archetype even further by having a female lead.  Veronica Mars is also, in my opinion, less slavishly devoted to honoring its Noir roots.  Veronica, while not afraid to go dark, is decidedly light and bouncy in tone for the most part.  It's fun, and it plays to the strengths of lead Kristin Bell.  Brick, while at times very funny, is, compared to Veronica, pretty oppressively dark in tone.

Once again, I think that this is likely intentional on the part of the filmmakers.  They are staying true to the inspiration for the film.  Even down to the way the characters talk: these teenagers use words like bulls, gum, and jake in such a way that I could sometimes barely follow what they were talking about.  Buried in all this seriousness is a sense of fun.  In that sense, unlike Veronica Mars, I don't think this movie plays to the strengths of its lead.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an extremely charming and funny actor, but he doesn't get much chance to show it here.  I know that the character he is portraying should be delivering his lines so coldly without a hint of emotion, and playing the role of tough as nails gumshoe.  But I just don't think Gordon-Levitt pulls it off.  I think part of it is that he is still relatively young at this time (2005), and maybe finding his way as an actor.  He just lacks the charisma and presence to pull off this role, though he tries hard.  It doesn't help that his haircut s ridiculous.  Apparently, the hairstyle is drawing inspiration from Spike, the main character of the anime Cowboy Bebop, but I think that particular hairstyle is better left to the world of animation.

In the end, the world of Brick is incredibly well-realized.  Director Johnson does an admirable job of making the movie look sparse and noir-y, for lack of a better term.  The writing is extremely sharp.  There were many memorable one-liners and witty exchanges and lines of dialogue.  The cast is very fresh and good-looking.  And the film is well-shot.  There were so many creatively shot scenes, and interesting jump cuts and transitions between scenes that I lost count.  But the movie lacks heart.  The story, while impressively dense and twisting for a film of this sort, left me cold.  I never really cared about Gordon-Levitt's character's girlfriend, why she died, or what happened next to anybody.  None of the characters were particularly likeable.  And everything was so overwrought.  Particularly Lukas Haas' character, the Pin.  I couldn't determine whether Haas was channeling a vampire or a pimp or both for this particular role, but he looked and sounded ridiculous throughout.

Perhaps were I a Noir or detective story buff, I would have found more redeeming qualities in this film than I did, but as is, I found it decidedly mediocre.  However, I still like Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  And I really want to watch Veronica Mars.

Verdict: 6.5/10