DVD Review: Brick

This is an updated version of a review I posted on my previous blog, I'm watching it again at the moment so I thought why not.

DVD Review: Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005, USA).

The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, um Body Heat? Films featuring grizzled heros with fast mouths and even.... um faster women? All, well almost all, classics and in particular classics of the Film Noir genre.

The Breakfast Club, American Pie, She's All That; Films featuring high school kids getting lucky, getting embarrased and getting life experience.

Brick: A grizzled high school kid hero with a fast mouth, getting lucky with a fast woman and getting more experience in high school than I think I'll get in most of my life. When the money men got a hold of the script, their heads must have spun with all the mixing of genre and styles. Not to mention the dialogue... and yet it works staggeringly well.
The story of one high school kid, Brendon Fry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to get to the heart of a mystery involving a whole load of words he doesn't initially understand and the death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie De Ravin), Brick is an invloving watch from start to finish. But where to start? Play.com is currently selling Brick with a free glossary of the terms used in the film and indeed at early screenings, glossarys are also handed out. Yet how much of this is required? Noir films such as those mentioned earlier (maybe not so much Body Heat) have prided themselves on their involved, inclusive and maybe somewhat restricted world for years. While Brick may take this principle and run with it completely, I would not feel that a glossary is needed. Simply, you get what they are saying. If you don't get what they are saying, the visuals tell you all you need. Saying that, when I initially watched Brick in the cinema (at the simply awesome Watershed in Bristol), my housemate Jess' head was spinning. This may be becasue she wasn't expecting the dialogue style while I was, but if you are, I think my point remains valid.
Hard to believe Rian Johnson is a first time writer-director judging by this. I would imagine it would be hard to have the courage to pull off anything truly audacious with your first film and yet with the specific example of the chase with the man with the knife? He pulls it off. This specific scene is probably my favourite of the film, just for the fact that the only sound we hear are the sounds of footsteps. The purpose of this is revealed when (SPOILER) Brendon takes his shoes off to mask his footseps and make the crucial move. Suprising style mixed with a narrative purpose? I would say thats audacious and dare I say it original!
Just have to say the Score? I had the theme running in my head for weeks after the film and have it in my head right now.
Perfomances. Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes the character come alive. While he is a bit two-dimesional, a rare case of style over narrative (His history is frustratingly teased but never really explored), the style he has makes up for it in spades. Funny, touching and showing a surreal amount of strength (see any of the fights), Gordon-Levitt shows that with Mysterious Skin and now Brick, he is turning out to be a far more promising proposition than the boy who played Tommy in Third Rock From The Sun should have any right to be.
Nora Zethner as the Femme Fatale, Laura imbides her character with wit, charm, a bit of sluttiness and a sense of something wrong under the surface and does so with ease. Lukas Haas as the enigmatic Pin is just... pleasent really. You know he is dangerous, you get that feeling throughout but... he's just nice really. Emilie De Ravin playing the doomed Emily does her best with a nothing role, but by Christ, she don't look like a High School kid!
Right time to sum up, this has taken far to long and I apologise! Damn damn stylish with a plot which will have you guessing, well I was anyway, with a killer script and some pretty decent perfomances, if I were you I would believe the hype, because Brick deserves it.

Video: Shot on Digital tape, looks pretty great, no real block, bit of artificing every now and then but as it is such a new release it looks as good as it could get on DVD.

Audio: Interesting 5.1 track, only comes alive at specific bits, rears only come into play for music and some set pieces, the car ride with Tug and the foot chase spring to mind/

Extras:

Commentary with Rian Johnson: Good commentary, you can tell he really pired his heart into this, nice anecdotes to, reccomended.

Look at the soundtrack: Very funny look at how a soundtrack can be created.

Video diary by Rian Johnson: Dissapointing four minute video journal, those his observations on the monotony of the press tour makes for some funny viewing.

Trailer: Love, love, love this trailer. Sums up the film perfectly and a little piece of art in itself.

While the film didn't have an effect on me as such efforts as Pi or Donnie Darko, it's still a very impressive debut and the extra features give real added value to the set. A great rental or a solid purchase.