Village Voice
The hair may thin considerably under Brick's hat after a while, and Hammett redone remains Hammett half done, but while the plates are in the air, it's a spectacle of nerve...
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Brick
After receiving a panic-stricken phone call from his ex-girlfriend Emily (de Ravin) - just before she turns up dead - high-school loner Brendan (Gordon-Levitt, after his brilliant turn in last year's 'Mysterious Skin') sets out to infiltrate the illicit cliques she left him for. Brendan becomes embroiled in the web of vice & deceit that surrounds Emily's murder.
LA Weekly: "A fusion of teenage confidential and hard-boiled film noir set in the mean corridors and power cliques of high school. The existentialist vibe of film noir becomes a perfect metaphor for the twin evils of malice and alienation at high school." Or, as the NY Times put it: "the milieu of 'Beverly Hills 90210' and 'The OC' goes noir".
Won Special Jury Prize for Originality at Sundance 2005.
2006110 minsUSA
DramaMystery
- Director:
- Rian Johnson (feature debut)
- Writer:
- Rian Johnson
- Cast:
- Joseph Gordon-LevittNora ZehetnerLukas HaasNoah FleissEmilie de Ravin
Brick / Reviews
The New York Times
A flashy cinematic stunt perpetrated by Rian Johnson, dispenses with the adolescent gibberish of the here and now to graft the hard-boiled art of Dashiell Hammett onto an upscale Southern California high school: the milieu of "Beverly Hills 90210" and "The O.C." goes noir...
Full reviewRolling Stone
"Sensational" is the word for Joseph rdon-Levitt (equally striking in Mysterious Skin), who stars as Brendan, the teen outsider who becomes a budding Bogart...
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New Zealand Herald
Brick keeps its hip wits about it long enough to show that high school noir is the new black...
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Film Threat
With brilliant dialogue out of the 1940s and graceful visuals that add depth to the dark comedy, Johnson debuts with a smart, self-assured feature that portrays adolescence like no other film has...
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Empire Magazine
With a superb lead turn by rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Johnson's debut is a smart, original neo-noir that works as an ingenious mindgame as well as a slick Hollywood calling card...
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BBC
With his low-budget debut Brick, director Rian Johnson deconstructs traditional film noir and rebuilds it in a modern landscape. Gone are the trilby-donning tough guys in dark alleys in favour of grungy teens sloping through the halls of a California high school. Thankfully though this isn't just another teen movie with Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing it straight as the amateur private dick. The story lacks a memorable sucker punch at the end, but it's tough not to like for sheer guts...
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