Remember a few years ago, when word-of-mouth launched an obscure indie flick called Memento into theatres across North America? Well, I just got back from the theatre, and I think Brick might be this year’s Memento.
For those who aren’t familiar with the film, check out the trailer. Brick is essentially a Dashiell Hammett detective story set in a California highschool, played totally straight by everyone involved. It starts with a shot of the main character, Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), crouching over the dead body of his ex-girlfriend, Emily. The rest of the movie is Brendan’s attempt to find out what happened.
The most amazing thing about Brick is the dialogue. There’s so much slang (guns are “gats,” cops are “bulls”) that the filmmakers decided to include a glossary on the website. Yet even if you don’t catch it all, there are enough visual and atmospheric cues so you always have a general idea of what’s going on. It’s sort of like if James Ellroy wrote A Clockwork Orange.
The film’s tense, stylish, surprisingly funny, and will probably turn Levitt-Gordon into a major star. So has anyone seen it yet? Is anyone planning to?
I’m hoping to see it. The first time I had heard of it was when Joseph Gordon-Levitt was on the cover of Now Magazine this week. Sounds really interesting.
I’m sure it’ll be still playing somwhere by the time I get back from school in two weeks.
I’m intruiged, but the film looks like one of those smaller film releases, so there’s no way it’s getting any sort of screening over here. Guess I’ll have to wait for the DVD.
I had never heard of this movie until today, where the folks on Something Awful.com’s movie forums were singing its praises. I love noir, so I’m definitely excited about seeing it. I hope it opens around here!
It’s been mentioned in passing in a couple of other movie threads, but hasn’t had one of its own. I saw the movie a few weeks ago, and I really liked it; so did everyone else in my group. It put the film noir trappings into a new setting and even had some fun with them (although it’s a pretty dark film), and the cinematography is beautiful. It’s probably not as original as Memento, but it could be an underground hit all its own.
I saw a trailer for it before a film I rented recently - it is something I will rent. I don’t live in an area that gets many small-released films, and if it comes to our art house theatre, I know none of my friends will go see it with me, because they suck. The trailer made it look confusing, so I was interested.
It’s very good. Confusing to follow at first, but the atmosphere should keep you engaged until you work out what’s going on. Don’t stress about the slang, it’s minimal and easy to deduce from context. Anyway, they were handing out crib sheets at the theater I saw it at.
Think Twin Peaks with the weirdness turned down a notch and an actual plot.
I thought this was about eighty-five percent of a really inspired movie – Joseph Gordon Leavitt and Lukas Haas were excellent, and the argot was extremely well-done – but then the ending turned out to be somewhat incoherent and completely deflating. (In fact, I’m convinced they changed it at some point in the creative process, because the groundwork had been laid for a much better and more effective end to the narrative.)
Specifically, it really seemed like they were heading towards having the Brain involved somehow as the guy who’d been pulling some of the strings. Maybe I just picked up on red herrings that the filmmaker intentionally strewed about, but if that’s the case then the red herrings would, in my opinion, have made a better ending to the movie than the chaos at the Pin’s house and the anti-climactic denouement on the football field.
Gadarene, I considered briefly that the movie might be heading in that direction, too. But it was really just a feeling - I didn’t notice any subtle clues or red herrings that were pointing that way. What did I miss?
I thought that the ending was pretty effective as it was, I should say. I wasn’t disappointed at all.
I hope this film is not too small a release to come to my area, since I think Joseph Gordon Levitt has great potential as an actor & I’m ready to watch most anything he’s in.
I first got that feeling when Brendan commented on how the Brain was at the library so early on the morning that Emily was found dead. There was something about the look on the Brain’s face when he explained that his bus had dropped him off really early that twigged my radar. Then there were a few scenes where it seemed as though Brendan was expecting there to be a shadowy figure behind the whole thing – someone who was responsible for taking the brick in order to compete with the Pin, for instance. The Brain knew all about the bad stuff the brick had been cut with; he was the one responsible for getting Brendan involved in the whole thing to begin with (by giving Em Brendan’s locker number); he was in the position to keep tabs on Brendan the whole way, yet he was conveniently unavailable (remember his “they confiscated my cell phone; I just now got it back” thing?) when Brendan needed him the most. There’s some other stuff I’m not thinking of at the moment. Basically, the director introduced his character, kept him involved in various interesting ways, and then had him drop out of sight at the beginning of the third act. That was really suspicious and made me think that he was gonna be revealed as the baddie at the end. But instead…no.
A few questions about the movie, two of 'em related somewhat to my (unfounded) speculation above:
(1) Who actually sent that guy after Brendan with the knife? It was pretty well-established that neither Pin nor Tug were responsible for it. Was it Dode? When did we find that out? Doesn’t seem like him. When we discovered that the Pin hadn’t sent him (because he was going to offer Brendan the job), I was expecting the Brain to be behind it instead. But obviously not.
(2) I was really disappointed by Brendan’s big revelation with the arrow cigarette, because it didn’t seem like the kind of thing, by itself, that would make all the pieces fit together in his head. But I think I must have missed something about the earlier scene, because what he described in the denouement didn’t mesh with my recollection. That is, sure, Kara was smoking the arrow cigarette, which means she was in Tug’s car at the beginning. But I thought that the cigarette got tossed out of the passenger-side window – which, if true, makes Brendan’s brainstorm that Kara was driving (with the Pin in the passenger side) and that Emily was so scared because she saw Kara’s face kinda unsupported. Again, I thought they were gonna reveal that the Brain was driving and that Kara was in the passenger seat…which admittedly wouldn’t explain why the Brain was driving Tug’s car, but I was looking forward to hearing what they had to say about that.
(3) Finally, why did Brendan get so sick over the course of the film? Was it just from blood loss and the beatings he’d taken?
I’d love to hear people’s take on these questions.
I also agree with hazel-rah; the slang wasn’t at all hard to follow. It was a far cry from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in that regard, for example.
And I should say that the film was, in parts, really, really funny. I loved the bit with the Pin’s mom and the scene in the assistant principal’s office for example.
I also thought Tug was a surprisingly interesting and sympathetic character.
They actually had a large poster with the slang where I saw it. In retrospect it seemed unnecessary. The only term I remember them using repeatedly was “bulls.”
And then there was the repeated use of the word eat, as in “Where does he eat?” and “She knows where I eat.” Which sounds all portentous and figurative until you realize that it means exactly what it says.
Didn’t the Brain reveal at the end that it was Brad Ramage (the jock who Brendan knocks unconscious in the parking lot) who sent the guy with the knife?
In your second question, I think that…
…you’re mixing up Cara (the drama student) with Laura (the redhead who’s in on the Pin’s operation). As for your actual question, I don’t know. It’s one part of the movie I’ll have to pay attention to when I watch it again.
The answer you give to your third question is indeed what Laura says at one point in the movie. It would seem to be the most apparent reason.
Now that I think more about it, though,
Is it possible that the Brain was behind everything, and Brendan just never pieces it together? He does have access to an uncanny amount of knowledge. Why was he at the football field at the end of the movie anyways? Would he have motivation for sending the guy with the knife himself, and lying about it at the end?
Treviathan: Thanks; your post clears up some stuff for me.
You say: Didn’t the Brain reveal at the end that it was Brad Ramage (the jock who Brendan knocks unconscious in the parking lot) who sent the guy with the knife?
My response: I must have missed him saying that. It definitely makes sense, though.
You say: …you’re mixing up Cara (the drama student) with Laura (the redhead who’s in on the Pin’s operation). As for your actual question, I don’t know. It’s one part of the movie I’ll have to pay attention to when I watch it again.
My response: You’re absolutely right; I was mixing them up. Damn similar names. Lemme know what you think about that scene when you watch it again; I’ll drag a friend to it and keep an eye out for myself.
If that’s indeed the case, it’s a nice bit of realism. It’s also a nice way to insert a little tension into some of the scenes. I remember not being quite convinced by this explanation when I watched it, though – I don’t think the worsening progression by which he becomes sicker necessarily maps to his injuries in a logical way. But I could be wrong, and I’ll see what I think when I watch it again.
You say:Is it possible that the Brain was behind everything, and Brendan just never pieces it together? He does have access to an uncanny amount of knowledge. Why was he at the football field at the end of the movie anyways? Would he have motivation for sending the guy with the knife himself, and lying about it at the end?
My response:[spoiler]I think so. Maybe he was trying to pin (heh) Em’s death on Brendan from the beginning, so that he’d be free and clear with the brick and Laura and his own operation. And when Tug and the Pin didn’t give Brendan a brutal enough smackdown to keep him from getting close, he sent someone out to ensure that Brendan wouldn’t find out too much. I do remember thinking that he had the motive the first time I saw it…another thing to look out for in a repeated viewing.
In any case, I like the notion that Brendan never pieces it together, and I’m gonna go with that in my own head. The whole bit with Brendan and the note and Laura’s locker at the end just seemed way too pat for me.[/spoiler]
Excellent movie, not gimmicky at all. Joseph GL has a long career ahead of him. You can actually ask writer/director Rian Johnson most of your questions directly (if the fans who’ve seen it 20 times don’t get there first). The forums are sparse but indispensable, and a few of the cast and crew members hang there, too (Laura, Dode, Nathan the sdtk guy).
As for The Brain, there are some ver-r-r-y interesting theories about him, though I tend to think he can be both a symbol and a real, living character
Wow, this is so cool. I think I was one of the first to mention this film on the SDMB, in this thread. I’ve been hearing about this film for over a year now, and was excited to finally see it at a screening at the end of February. I’m even doubly excited that it seems to have taken off - I’m seeing posters and ads for it everywhere - and all the reviews I’ve seen are raves.
I admit to being confused by some of the plot points, but overall it was just such an engaging, stylish story the confusing bits didn’t bother me at all. I’m just going to have to see it again! The performances are extraordinary. Everyone is so intense and engaged, and it’s nice to see a group of young actors so thoroughly involved in the movie. And they’re all in the same movie, which is a plus. You can’t always count on that. I second that, Gadarene: I loved Tug too!
Hee. Funny to read people comment about Joseph. He’s a pal of mine and I couldn’t be prouder of the work he’s done here (and in Mysterious Skin and Manic as well - I haven’t seen his other movies). He has also done some short films himself. You can check out his website here:
The whole bit with Brendan and the note and Laura’s locker at the end just seemed way too pat for me.[/spoiler]