Brick (film)
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Brick is an American film by first-time director Rian Johnson. It won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated at the Independent Spirit Award 2006 for the John Cassavetes Award (best film production with a budget under 500,000 US-Dollar). Focus Features distributed the film, which opened in the US on March 31st, 2006 in New York and Los Angeles.
| Brick | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Rian Johnson |
| Written by | Rian Johnson |
| Produced by | Ram Bergman, Mark G. Mathis |
| Starring | Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emilie de Ravin, Lukas Haas, Meagan Good, Noah Fleiss, Nora Zehetner, Noah Segan |
| Distributed by | Focus Features |
Release date | 2006 |
Running time | 110 Minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | 500,000 US Dollars |
The film score was composed by Nathan Johnson.
Style
Brick combines neo-noir and high school genres through dialogue, cinematography, and repetition of specific scenes from [film noir] classics. In case the gap between modern high school students and the film noir heroes of the 1940s and 50s is too big of a jump, Johnson ages his characters through classic language and non-traditional dress.
Brick's cinematography is very reminiscent of classic noir regarding the use of light and photographic angles, but the color has more in common with American Beauty than other neo-noir films like Chinatown.
Stylistically, the most apparent of its film noir references surfaces by way of David Lynch's Twin Peaks TV series. This is portrayed using themes of a dead high school teen, an exploration of the sinister underbelly of small town, clues revealed through dreams or even visual references to the ceiling fan etc.
The dialogue of the film draws as its source detective slang of the 1930s (or ripped out of a Dashiell Hammett novel). This is not ironic, rather it is a serious, straightfaced style integral to the film's aesthetic. Despite being set in the present day (viz. the presence of cell phones, Rubik's Cubes, etc.), this method of conversing is presented as a normal mode of speech. At some viewings of the movie, a small pamphlet was available which explained the slang used in the movie. In addition, the "ripped paper" series of movie posters feature a line of dialogue from the film which takes advantage of it.
In spite of its Californian high school setting, the characters of Brick in a mix of modern teenage and classic noir clothing. This is most apparent in the shoes of the characters and may be used to bring back the feeling of classic noir (the shoes tend to be highlighted during particularly noir moments) or to age the characters.
One of the interesting things about this film is how well the two genres blend. On face value, it could be seen either as a noir film in a high school setting or an unusually dark high school movie. It could even be said that Brick does to the high school genre what film noir did to popular cinema in the 1940s and 50s.
Plot Synopsis
Template:Spoiler Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a student at a California high school. Unlike most outsiders, he is au fait with the intricacies of the "upper crust" of druggie socialites, but chooses to live outside them until he gets a terrified phone call from his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin of Lost). She tearfully tells him that "she didn't know that the brick was bad" and that "the Pin's on it now", and implores him to help her. Shortly after, she disappears. Brendan takes it upon himself to find her and make sure she's OK, enlisting the aid of fellow loner Brain (Matt O'Leary) to shake things up, while also keeping the assistant principal of his school (Richard Roundtree) somewhat informed of what's going on. His intrusion into the tightly knit circle of high school cliques brings him into the lives of several people, including sophisticate Laura (Nora Zehetner), prolifically violent Tug (Noah Fleiss), stoner Dode (Noah Segan), seductive Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian J. White) and drug baron The Pin (Lukas Haas). The Pin is pivotal in Brendan's pursuit of the truth about Emily's death.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack CD of the movie was released on 21 March 2006 by Lakeshore Records and contains a full unedited performance of The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze by Nora Zehetner, along with the Anton Karas song which is playing in the Pin's kitchen and the big band version of Frankie and Johnny which is playing at the masquerade party.
Track Listings
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Cult following
The film opened to United Kingdom audiences on May 12th, 2006 to an incredibly limited number of screens, and this has been met with particular backlash by Internet fans. Subsequently, the film has garnered quite the cult following on the Internet from fans wishing to see the film.
Trivia
In the Halloween in January scene, a girl in a blue dress briefly walks across the shot. She is dragging a cooler, a reference to May, another movie Rian Johnson worked on.