“As Awe-Striking As A ‘Brick’ To The Head”
Last year, Shane Black crafted a film noir lover’s wet dream with the classy, quirky “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.” This year, newcomer Rian Johnson has brought joy back to the film world with the slick thriller “Brick” the film-lover equivalent to a moist, steaming hot fudge cake being slipped between your lips. A writing/directing achievement, featuring a star making performance by Jeremy Gordon Levitt, “Brick” should become a cult classic on the college campus circuit and for other noir film fans.
Brendan (Levitt, “Mysterious Skin”) lives an isolated life; he feels the loneliness of a long-distance runner. The love of his life (Emilie de Ravin, “Lost”) has entangled herself in drugs and trafficking. When he finds her dead by a tunnel, Brendan decides to smoke out the possible killers. It could be her tweaking present boyfriend (Noah Segan), a possible fellow drug-running team (Brian J. White and Nora Zehetner), the kingpin (Lucas Haas) or his muscle (Noah Fleiss).
With his sidekick (Matt O'Leary), Brendan sets a trap for everyone to find the killer. As he gets closer to the truth, even with the heat on his back, Brendan makes more and more dangerous people very unhappy. He becomes the victim of more right-hooks than Leon Spinks. Did I happen to mention that all this drama does not occur with world-weary adults on the mean-streets of New York, the shady deals of Los Angeles, or the Sam Spade territory of fog covered San Francisco? Brendan and his targets attend a sunny high school in Orange County. Welcome to The OC with a body count.
By moving the elements of film noir to an un-apropos location like high school, Johnson is commenting brilliantly on the lost generation. Everyone speaks like they learned to read from Mickey Spillane novels, not “Highlights” magazine. This is a heightened reality, with un-snuffed cigarette butts, femme fatales, and hothead druggies. Unlike a frustratingly forced parable like the “Dangerous Liaisons” rip-off “Cruel Intentions,” Johnson is not trying to be kitschy or over-clever with his pulp fiction dialogue. He’s not putting stilted words into these mouths of babes, he’s actually commenting on an entire generation of slack and greed. The youths here speak this way because media is all they know. Like the kids in “Scream,” they’ve been raised with televisions as babysitters. They only know what they see in movies. This is the way they see the world.
It’s also fascinating that Johnson utilizes a population of spoiled rich kids, who have enough family money to do whatever they want, yet nothing is ever enough. They constantly need more, so they deal drugs. They need even more than that, so they double-cross each other. It’s a sad future for civilization.
Johnson has cast a savvy team of actors (though none are young enough to be undergrads in college, let along high school). De Ravin lives mostly in flashbacks and her drowning soul hangs over the protagonist and the film itself. She is the sort who you make yourself insane trying to save. Zehetner is not a femme fatale, but what a fumbling teenager would expect a dangerous woman to be.
Johnson inspiringly casts slim, low-key Haas (a stretched version of his innocent self as the Amish child 20 years ago in “Witness”) as the kingpin. The last person you’d expect to lead a complex drug organization, Haas adds delicious layers to the role by making his character a momma’s boy with an appreciation for cookies and orange tang.
Levitt, though, is the biggest gem in this masterpiece. Bespectacled in wire-rims, with curly hair in his face, Brendan is focused on the pursuit of truth, doing whatever it takes to even the score. Johnson’s script ties Brendan to Jack Nicholson in “Chinatown” (constantly being beaten down and having his nose broken) and Dustin Hoffman in “Marathon Man” (sprinting everywhere as if life were a relay race). His determination makes him a fascinating character to follow.
A newcomer to watch with enthrallment, Johnson has already presented himself to be a master of mood. Grade: A+ |
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