Brick

When one sets a goal to see one hundred films in one calendar year, it is inevitable that a lot of horribly bad films are going to be seen. There will also be a fair share of mediocre or decent films. Overall, there will be very few great films. And since Hollywood follows a release date pattern most of the year can start to look pretty grim. The dumping grounds of the opening of the year are only spared by the limited release films that finally show up in the nowhereville that is my location (I mean that in the movie release sense, this is not New York or LA or even Chicago). The dumping grounds are followed by the summer blockbuster season.

Luckily for me a smaller independent film finally made it to my area and I was fortunate enough to view it. Brick was a bright shining beacon of hope among a myriad of big budget schlock. The film follows Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as he tries to discover what brought about the death of his ex Emily. He slugs down into a world of drugs and intrigue that is back-dropped against high school, which pretty much makes the movie pretty surreal. Soon he is surrounded by some very interesting characters with equally interesting names and professions, such as the Pin (Lukas Haas) a local drug kingpin and the Brain (Matt O'Leary).

In all of this there are fights and trickery and conversations that are truly well conceived. The dialogue is filled with some slang. I cannot be sure that it is real slang, since I confess I lost track of how teens talk basically the minute I graduated high school but it doesn't really matter if it is real slang. The characters say it with out a touch of irony. In fact everything in this film is said straight faced. This makes what is at times probably ludicrous dialogue work. As long as no one breaks the fantasy the film works. Only one particularly violent scene broke the fantasy and even that I could overlook.

The brightest part of the film for me was Nora Zehetner who plays Laura. Laura is the equivalent of the film noir femme fatale. She exudes allure with a hint of danger that lies somewhere in her skinny frame. When she was on screen I couldn't take my eyes off her and when she wasn't on screen I was secretly hoping she would return. I am eager to see her in more films in the future. But she is not the only great performance in this film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is amazing. I had to remind myself that this is no longer the little kid from the TV show "Third Rock From The Sun".

The tone and the atmosphere of this film are fantastic. The humor off beat but definitely there. It almost never breaks the bounds of its own fantasy. I was really starting to lose hope and this film reminded me nicely that films could be more than just a handsome actor acting petulant and shooting guns. I cannot recommend it and Nora Zehetner (a new actress crush) enough.