Brick Out

Around the time Looper came out, I read somewhere that it was actually the second time writer-director Rian Johnson had collaborated with actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. They had worked together in 2005 on Johnson's debut film, an independent effort called Brick. I put the film in my Netflix queue, and promptly forgot about it until a few days after Christmas. With days to go before New Year's, several entertainment web sites ran stories about movies soon to become unavailable for instant streaming, and Brick kept coming up as one of the best on its way out.

Before sitting down to watch it, I should have been much more curious about what the movie actually was. Had I done so, I likely would never have bothered watching it in the first place.

Brick is a highly stylized film noir, but in the place of gangsters and hard-boiled detectives, the film is set in high school. It's Chinatown meets John Hughes. In many ways, Brick is to Dashiell Hammett what Cruel Intentions was to Dangerous Liaisons. If that sounds appealing to you, by all means, check it out. But I've rarely met a film noir I've liked, and so unsurprisingly, this one held no appeal for me whatsoever.

The film reveled in all the infuriating conventions of the genre. Hammy, overwrought dialogue. A plot both impenetrably complex and glacially slow paced. Characters with interchangeable behavior, differentiated only by their one assigned personality tick and their preposterous nicknames.

The cast all performs in the expected style with earnestness and gusto. There are a number of recognizable young actors; besides Joseph Gordon-Levitt, you may recognize Emelie de Ravin, Matt O'Leary, and Lukas Haas. There's even an odd cameo-like appearance by Richard Roundtree. But if any of them know what the hell is going on in this movie, their performances aren't enough to make it clear to me. It comes off more dense than amateur Shakespeare.

I stuck around through the entire movie just because part of me was curious to see what would happen in the end, but I would have been better served just turning off the movie and going to read an online plot synopsis. I wound up doing that anyway after the clear-as-mud finale.

I'm glad I came across Looper before this film, or I might never have given that movie a chance. I'm also pleased that Rian Johnson has found success directing the work of other writers (including several series-best episodes of Breaking Bad). The one kind thing I can say about this movie is that it captures its desired tone impeccably well. But it's a tone I would never recommend. For the first time in a while, I've found a movie deserving of an F.