In the film “Brick,” the usual noir suspects play a part: femme fatale Laura, smoothly played by Norah Zehetner, muscle named Tugger (Noah Weiss), heat in the form of Assistant Vice-Principal Gary Trueman (Richard Roundtree), and shamus Brendan’s steadfast ally, The Brain (Matt O‚Leary.) And lurking behind the web is the requisite spider, here named The Pin, played by Lukas Haas with a blend of the sinister and the comic.
Call it high school film noir. Everybody else does, and rightly so. Chock-full of stylishly clipped, hard-boiled dialogue and a gritty, tastefully pulpy mystery, writer/director Rian Johnson delivers a good brick-in-the-glove slap to the face in the tradition of those black and whites we love so much.
Brendan‚s character is key to keeping everything together. Tough, scrappy, and smart, he’s got the chops to play a very dangerous game in pursuit of the truth. He’s an active player in the game, not a sap or pawn too stupid to do anything but get dragged along by the plot, as a lesser movie would have it.
But in true noir fashion, the solution to the mystery doesn’t leave him squeaky and smelling of pine-sol. The worst bruises aren’t the physical ones, and what he ultimately learns leaves an emotional mark. In other words, there‚s real drama underlying “Brick,” the kind that boils up from high school love, the pressure of trying to find a place in the world, and the usual raw, ugly emotions that occupy the darker recesses of the human heart.
There are times when “Brick” loses its intensity, as if taking a deep breath before going on with peeling back a few layers. These aren’t always necessary, and there comes a time when one wishes the end would come a little sooner than it does.
Part of that loss of intensity is admittedly a bit of a relief; humor to keep things from becoming too bleak. But the comedy sometimes feels awkward, as if the film isn’t sure humor belongs in the story or not.
The character of the Pin exemplifies this. All dressed up as a peacock at a funeral, complete with a fancy cane to help with his gimpy leg, the Pin is the drug dealer still living at home and being chauffeured in a mini-van graced with a table lamp. It’s funny, but is it too much of a satire on criminal masterminds to fit into the otherwise serious plot? Quite possibly, yes.
And there’s always the question as to how plausible it is for (older) high school kids to be involved in James Ellroy-light trouble. Then again, high schools kids aren’t simpletons.
The politics of a school’s social cliques, not to mention the violence some teens are capable of, could makes heads spin off necks.
So the few nit-picky faults “Brick” may have, including being ever-so-slightly predictable, don’t amount to much given how strongly filmed, performed, and written it is. Rian Johnson takes a Southern California high school (in San Clemente) and films it in darker tones overlaid with the eerie loneliness of an empty campus.
The overall result embodies the kind of existential angst that underlies film noir, and is the dark heart that makes “Brick” a cinematic heavy-hitter.
Focus Features presents a film directed and written by Rian Johnson. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Matt O’Leary, Noah Segan, Noah Fleiss, and Emilie de Ravin. 110 minutes. Rated R (for violent and drug content).
Rating
Entertainment Value: ** (out of two)
Technical Quality: ** (out of two)
This movie gets a star.