Brick
Category:blog,Recommendation,ReviewsBy now you’ve probably seen Director Rian Johnson’s movie Rogue One. Yeah, I agree, it’s amazing. Especially the last few minutes with that Vader in the Hall scene. Bad ass Vader is back!
But have you seen Rian Johnson’s first film Brick? 
It’s one of my favorite films from the early 2000’s. It’s a neonoir style mystery set in high school. Of course it’s a story that revolves around greed, sex, and murder. Like all good noir and high school stories should.
It’s primarily inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s Glass Key and Red Harvest. If you haven’t read either of those, go pick them up. They’re great. Red Harvest was the inspiration for the Kurosawa classic Yojimbo and the American film Last Man Standing. It’s also inspired by the now classic anime Cowboy Bebop.
Which you should definitely see. Bebop is an amazing series. It’s so good, I even own the sound track on CD. And I don’t buy soundracks.
One of the things that I like the most about Brick is the command of the noir-style language. It’s something I’m very conscious of when I write a Jack story. It’s amazing how well the patios blends with being in High School. I mean, it opens up with the protagonist Brandon looking for his ex-girlfriend Emma. He keeps asking everyone who she’s eating lunch with now. Which totally sounds like a noir slang for who she’s spending time with BUT since this is High School, it really does mean he’s asking who she’s sitting with during their lunch break.
It stars a Joseph Gordon-Levitt and, as I mentioned, it’s written and directed by Rian Johnson. If you like hard boiled action, noir patter, and some action you’ll probably like Brick.
If you don’t like any of those things…I wouldn’t watch it.
TTy’all Later!
~W.H. Lock
