BrickReview
by Clint Morris
I remember going to Indonesia a few years back, for
the first time, initially unexcited. For the first week or so there, I
was rather lost – spending most of my time trying to figure out
the place, rather than simply enjoying what was on offer – and
wondered what I’d got myself into. I soon begun to get a sense of
the place though, became more comfortable to my surroundings, and
eventually, started to settle in. By the time I started enjoying
myself, it was time to leave. Most will feel the same way watching newcomer Rian Johnson’s Brick.
You’ll be scratching your head for the first three quarters of
the film, but once you start to feel it’s cadence, and just give
into it’s maverick ways, you’ll experience the best
cinematic vacation one could hope for. But yes, you might still be
scratching that head of yours for a couple of minutes on the drive home. There’s
films you can easily get away with walking ten minutes late into
– say, a superhero flick, or something like Die Hard – and there’s films you can afford to be a good 20 mins or more, later for – like Top Gun or an Adam Sandler comedy. Then there’s Brick,
a film that doesn’t really matter what time you walk into it
– be it at the very start, the first quarter or dead middle
– because nobody’s, regardless of how long they’ve
been in auditorium, is going to be any the wiser as to what the heck is
going on than the tardy. Yep, it’s a mindf**k alright
– buy boy, does the headular penetration feel oh so good. Brick
is your typically convoluted murder mystery, but with the setting
flipped from burnt-out private dicks, seasoned kingpin’s and
by-the-book seargents, to the schoolyard – where it’s
teenagers that are caught up in the central mystery. Thing is, the
youngsters act as if – and we’re not talking no Bugsy Malone
bullshit, either – they are seasoned professionals of this
harsh-world, especially our long-suffering hero and the mobster-like
thugs of the piece, immediately erasing the ‘age’
predicament from the scenario. And it works. Never for a moment do you
say to yourself, ‘Oh, sure, that kid’s only like 18 years
old. As if!” – because it’s played out, and written,
so honestly and meticously. Obviously influenced by - not only
the classic detective films of the 40s and 50s, but – David
Lynch’s eccentriccly outstanding whodunit series Twin Peaks, Brick
is as a cheap-as-chips indy that’s essentially relying on
it’s captivating storyline to hypntoise it’s audience. And
it will. From it’s extremely well-written dialogue, exciting
set-ups, uniquely drawn characters and tasty pay-off, the words
are pure gold. Johnson is clearly a man who knows how to write.
(He’s definitetly an actor’s writer too, giving the cast,
including Gordon-Levitt, some chunky stuff to chew on), The
newcomer - whose apparently been making homemade movies since he
was in the 7th grade - proves himself a bit of a creative
entrepreneuer behind the camera too. Sure, he’s seemingly robbed
some of his cool moves from shows like Peaks – the
lingering shot at the ceiling fan, being one – but most of the
time, he attempts the most creative and imaginative of shots, never
going – and you couldn’t blame him if he did, considering
the tiny budget – the cheap route. In short, he’s done more
with his mind and moolah than a major studio would’ve, given the
same material. But then, would the studio be working from the
same material? Probably not. They’d probably excise every
strange, new, ffresh element out of the thing and Hollywood-ize it to
the point that the audience feels raped of an experience. Intercourse
with the charming, intellectual, unknown is much more interesting. Brick isn’t just the coolest film of the year, it’s one of the best films you’ll see this year. Twin Peaks meets Veronica Mars with a fiery shot of surprise and slickness. See it, with a notepad. 2 out
of 5
Brick
Australian release: 3rd August, 2006
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, James Belushi, Anthony Anderson, Patrick Warburton
Director: Tony Leech, Todd Edwards, Cory Edwards
Website:
Click
here.
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