“Staff Picks” is a deeper look into movies that we love here at Video CULTure. Each edition of this column will focus on a single film that we think you should check out, either for the first time or for a long-overdue revisit
By Patrick Bartlett (Twitter: @alleywaykrew)
There aren’t a lot of movies that are both wholly original and also very clearly reminiscent of other antecedent films. “Brick” is one of them though. On paper, the idea of mashing up hard-boiled detective stuff with a teen drama set in high school should absolutely not work. It doesn’t even make sense. Yet. It somehow does in Rian Johnson’s hands though. This tale, a murder mystery set in and around the environs of a school, cemented him as a profoundly interesting filmmaker right off the bat. That’s right. This was his first film. It’s admittedly fairly iconoclastic… as would be a theme throughout his career… but as always with Rian Johnson, it’s in the best possible way.
For me personally, “Brick” came along at essentially the perfect time. I think it was due to my first real deep dive into crime comics but in the mid-2000s, it would be fair to describe me as obsessed with noir. Between tracking down old movies like “Out of the Past” and “The Maltese Falcon” from Netflix and poring over the back issues of comics like Ed Brubaker’s “Criminal”, I was in a state of constant discovery and it was heavenly for me. “Criminal” was especially helpful for me as a neophyte because after the end of the book you were holding in your hands, there’d be Brubaker giving you updates on what he’d been into while he was creating the book and then an essay by someone else in the artistic community (usually another novel writer, graphic or otherwise) talking about one of their favorite noirs. I say all that to say this: by the time I came around to “Brick”, I already had a decent understanding of the genre and even with that understanding, the film completely blew me away and continues to do so every time I watch it.
I don’t really know how to talk about the plot of this (or most detective stories) without accidentally spoiling anything, so I’ll try to tread as lightly as possible for the uninitiated but in case I’m unsuccesful in that pursuit, you should probably just watch the movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character of Brendan gets contacted out of the blue by his ex-girlfriend looking for help with a heavy situation she’s found herself in. Before he can even get too deep into the whys and wherefores of what’s going on, he finds her corpse face down in a tunnel. Utterly broken, he takes it upon himself to find out (with the help of his compatriot, Brain, in a terrific turn by Matt O’Leary) what she was involved in, who killed her and why. Navigating the criminal underbelly connected to his high school leads to Lukas Haas’s character, a fellow only known as The Pin, who’s said to be 26… and therefore old. Part of the package that comes with The Pin is his muscle, Tug, Noah Fleiss’s character and Nora Zehetner’s Laura Dannon, who says she wants to help Brendan but has murky motivations. In the end, connections are revealed (as you do) and it all leads to heartbreaking conclusions for heroes and villains alike.
I’ve heard Johnson discuss “Brick” and how easily the noir elements slid together with the high school elements. I don’t know that I would have understood if they weren’t explained to me. However, film is often about telling stories visually and the weaving of the disparate elements here has never not made perfect sense. His script deftly combines them without ever really swinging back and forth. It’s a high school movie as much as it’s a noir. His direction is instantly recognizable as reminiscent of films that might feature a lead performance by Humphrey Bogart but with a young cast bringing a completely different type of energy. Rewatching it now, it’s pretty clear why every Rian Johnson picture that followed is so different than everything else he’s done. He’s a live wire of creativity that can’t help but make every piece of art he’s associated with more interesting than anyone but him could probably imagine. At the time of its release, “Brick” was most famous for the ’30s/’40s era dialogue being spoken by its young protagonists but looking back on it now, the swagger of confidence in the direction is worthy of praise as much as the script is. There’s echoes of the Coen brothers and maybe even Scorsese without ever feeling like anything but distinctly Rian Johnson. The way he frames shots and moves the camera adds an energy that most directors never achieve, let alone on their first film like Johnson does here.
As important as what Johnson’s meticulously constructed is, the cast is integral to “Brick” working as well as it does. You can’t talk about the cast without singling out the lead performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He brings the kind of tough guy qualities you’d expect from a detective in a hard boiled piece of fiction but with a sense of humor and even a raw vulnerability that allows him to remain sympathetic even when he’s not on the side of the angels. It was a tour-de-force performance in the mid-2000s and remains the performance I think of when I hear his name mentioned. The character that is framed as the femme fetale in Zehetner’s Laura is almost equally impressive despite her never reaching the accolades she rightly deserved. Zehetner’s performance is impossible to pin down until the very end. Is she all that she seems or is Brendan right to distrust her and question her motives? Zehetner’s eyes and body language give away little if anything. I’d put her performance up against one like Faye Dunaway’s Academy Award nominated turn in “Chinatown” any day.
The rest of the cast all breathe life into characters that could seem silly in other hands. Haas’s take on The Pin and what Fleiss does with Tug is often simultaneously very funny while also always having a hint of foreboding. Where their relationship begins and where it ends up is fascinating upon rewatching. Also, what Noah Segan does with the character of Dode seemed to basically give him a lifelong role in Johnson’s work. It’s fairly obvious why. He manages to be equal parts silly and menacing while also inspiring a fair bit of sympathy. That kind of thing is a lot to ask of any actor but Segan rises to the occasion and steals almost every scene he’s in. To think about what Emilie De Ravin does with so little screen as Emily, Brendan’s ex, is astonishing. She manages to be someone you can understand what all the fuss over her is about while also being someone you might want to actively avoid. Meagan Good’s character of another of Brendan’s exes, Kara, and the aforementioned character played by Matt O’Leary, Brain, are probably given the least to do but still are able to be memorable and integral pieces of the puzzle.
Even a decade and a half later, “Brick” feels as fresh and vital as it ever has. The mashup of genres might be what brings people through the door, sure, but the fact that Rian Johnson is telling a high school story while he’s simultaneously telling a detective story and both work as well independently of one another as they do in concert is staggering. It seems impossible. It’s all right there in front of your eyes though. I’ve watched it countless times and have never once not found something new to admire. “Brick” truly is a landmark achievement in filmmaking and deserves to be seen by an even wider audience than it has heretofore…such as those who may have just discovered Rian Johnson with “Knives Out”, for instance. It could be called “quirky” but I’d rather just point to it as being unique. There’s truly nothing else like “Brick.”
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch