Brick: Review By Josh

Brick is a movie that acts smart but isn't. Despite the talent of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role, the film comes reeks of the worst kind of indie-dom. The writing gimmick of transposing a classic film-noir setting into contemporary highschool life fails because it treats the hard-boiled detective story as a more serious genre than it really is, and doesn't acknowledge its ridiculousness. The reason no one makes this kind of film-noir anymore is because it demands a sense of camp that doesn't fit contemporary filmmaking. It could have worked here had Rian Johnson acknowledged the goofiness of the idea, but he treats it deathly seriously. As a result the characters' actions and dialog come off as painfully inauthentic. There is only one such scene (and a very clever one -- more of these could have saved the film) that winks at the audience, and it's hilarious; the characters sit around talking about dealing drugs while the dealer's mother fixes them juice and cereal. Even the mystery of the plot itself unfolds in a fairly droll manner. Ultimately this is sort of an overrated, pretentious first effort from a filmmaker who is clearly a better director than he is a writer. Johnson uses some very cool camera tricks and the main musical theme is quite beautiful were it not for the weird, obnoxious chimes. Johnson has promise, but he is not there yet.