Day 65/69 - Brick (2005)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the busiest and most personable Indie actors working today. Lately, I've been checking out some of his varied work. In 2005, he scored big as Brendan in Rian Johnson’s Brick. 

The film could be called high school film noir, centering on a high school loner trying to solve the murder of his ex-girlfriend.

The movie follows the classic film noir characteristics:  a mood of alienation and corruption, isolation of characters in an urban setting, a murder to solve, a conflicted male protagonist facing a peril he may not understand, a woman who can’t be trusted, a twist ending, harsh lighting with strong shadows, sparse of unintelligible dialog, concentration on distorted objects in a frame.

Added to these is the concentration on the high school students—only three adult characters appear in the film. Brendan’s home and parents are nonexistent. The only mother-figure in the film constantly is seen serving juice to her drug-dealer son (Lukas Haas) and his minions. The law figure is a high school assistant vice-principal who serves the function of the police, and to whom Brendan tells his secrets.

Some fun facts from the imdb website:

• Brendan at one point instructs Laura (Nora Zehetner) to give him a distinct car honk—long, short, long, short. It’s the same instructions that Sam Spade gives Brigid O’Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon.

• When Brendan talks with Assistant V.P. Trueman, he refers to a teacher “Kasprzyk,” as being “tough but fair.” She is a real English teacher who teaches at San Clemente High School where writer/director Johnson attended and where the film was shot.

• The film, according to The New Yorker review, was edited on a home computer.

• Lukas Haas’ caped costume and cane were based on Jonathan Frid’s costume in the 1960s tv cult classic, Dark Shadows.

During the film, Brendan travels through the strata of high school social life with the druggies, the drama kids, the drug pushers, the geeks, acting in some ways as Dante and Virgil going through the levels of hell. It ends up being a fun trip.

Brick (2005) ****