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Kaleem Aftab
Brick, on selected release.
 comments
Read members' comments related to this film.
comment by Dilano
Jun 19, 2006
Brick works well as a high-school take on hard-boiled detective fiction of the 30s and 40s (Hammett, Chandler etc). The plot is convoluted in the extreme - just like The Big Sleep - and contains numerous references to classic film-noirs. What struck me most about Brick were the locations - empty car parks, deserted streets. Most of the great noirs were B movies and Brick's low budget works well in the context of the film, which explores alienation and the search for meaning. The desolate sets seem to mirror the desolation found in the characters inner lives. Even the hero seems to act due to a twisted code of honour rather than a moral impulse to do right.Definitely worth a watch.
comment by shrinkydinky
May 26, 2006
i guess a lot of the black humour comes from the incongruity of kids running around being detectives, femme fatales and the like, like when the pin's mum is dishing out milk and cookies to his henchmen. something of a harder spin than films like cruel intentions which take 'adult' stories or genres and send them back to school.a bit like muppet babies in that respect.
comment by rowan
May 19, 2006
I think I'd have liked more play on the self-consciousness of it possibly. I kept wondering why it was set in a high school.
comment by shrinkydinky
May 19, 2006
Although this had plenty of obvious influences (Chandler, David Lynch, Daniel Handler's 'The Basic Eight'), it wore them with pride and twisted its characters and plot into a wonderfully savage tale. The machine-gun dialogue took some following but I'm really looking forward to what Johnson does next.
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