Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 15-April-07
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Brick (2006)

"Brick" has been billed as a film noir set in high school, and indeed first-time writer/director Rian Johnson applies the genre's standards to modern teens. (Okay, he does have one previous film to his credit called "Evil Demon Golfball from Hell!!!", but that was a short.) I wondered as I viewed this movie if its intended hook is really that the attitudes and situations are anomalous with the younger crowd. Do teenagers today truly worry about love, paternity, vengeance, drugs, and power instead of acne and who asked whom to the prom? I hope not. I hope "Brick" does stand out as an experiment in imagination.

As such, it's not a bad flick. Maybe I was lucky to miss it in theaters since I had to rewind much of the rapid, jargon-heavy dialogue before understanding its meaning. Other than that annoyance, I mostly enjoyed watching the descent into obsession and the underworld by the hero Brendan (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the American Heath Ledger). Like elders of his kind, Brendan is a good guy (a "brick," colloquially) who exists quietly on the fringe of social circles and gets sucked into their crises unwillingly. It begins when his beloved ex-girlfriend Emily calls in a panic and sets him on a quest to find her and confirm that she's all right. Aided by another outsider aptly called Brain (Matt O'Leary), he works his way through a jock, a bruiser, a rich girl (Nora Zehetner), and a drama vixen (Meagan Good) gathering clues to Emily's wanderings. All roads lead to a drug dealer known as The Pin (Lukas Haas) — who is "old, like 26" — and his pit-bullish bodyguard Tug (Noah Fleiss). As the days pass Brendan grows increasingly more haunted, driven to endure physical and mental anguish to get to the bottom of Emily's fate.

The mood is meatier than the plot, but some characters are memorable for their idiosyncrasies. Of particular note are Brendan and The Pin, who both exhibit an intriguing blend of strength and vulnerability. (They meet in the kitchen where The Pin and his pals are served juice and cookies by his mother.) Like them, "Brick" adds up to an odd mix of contrasts which doesn't dazzle but casts a certain spell.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.