RECOMMENDED: Brick (Rian Johnson 2005) Part neo-noir thriller, part high school film and all cult movie, Brick was Rian Johnsons directorial debut and one of the first films to really get Joseph Gordon-Levitt noticed. When the ex-girlfriend of Brendan Frye (Gordon-Levitt) ends up dead, he can not help but wonder about the call she made to him the day before, in which she mentioned a few cryptic words like brick, the pin and tug in a frightened state. Having found her body himself, Brendan hides it to avoid police intervention and decides to investigate the murder himself. In doing so, he unearths a whole strange underworld within his high school milieu which includes enigmatic thugs, femme fatales and young drug kingpin (Lukas Haas) who still lives in his mothers basement. Maybe easiest described as the best David Lynch film David Lynch didnt make, Brick is a surreal and enigmatic film that is just bizarre enough to be utterly compelling yet also grounded enough to not completely distance the viewer. Told in the fashion of a classic Dashiell Hammett mystery novel but set in a modern day high school setting, the film balances a fine line between strange and normal and is very reminiscent of some of David Lynchs work in how it explores a seedy and dark underworld, which seems to be festering just underneath the surface of our regular one. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is perfect as the aloof outsider lifting the veil off this underworld whilst the screenplay never allows the viewer to fully understand what is happening without ever alienating them. A striking directorial debut by Rian Johnson, Brick won a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the Sundance Film Festival, the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation at Stiges and numerous other awards at various international film festivals. youtube/watch?v=4Zfw8__A7ps
Posted on: Wed, 22 Oct 2014 11:30:59 +0000
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