Hillary and Will Discuss Rian Johnson's Brick

Hillary and I went to see "Brick" on friday, written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as a quick-witted teen sleuth caught up in the dark underbelly of high school, in search of his missing ex-girlfriend. Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O'Leary also star.

Hillary: Since Will and I had so much fun with the Bettie Page review last week, we decided to do the tag-team thing again. He is a lot more motivated to blog so this helps me to get motivated, too. So, the movie - this is honestly not the type of movie (plot-wise) that I would normally like but I did like it very much. I like a good mystery but I also am automatically cynical about "dead girl" plots. These are when some dude is trying to avenge the murder of some beloved, underdeveloped, idealized female character (the grossest of my "dead girl" subgenre would be anything by Mel Gibson, though that aspect of the amazingTwin Peaks and even my beloved Veronica Mars really grated on my nerves). It just feels like such a cheap, insulting tactic. The dead girl in this movie was played by Lost's Emilie de Ravin. She plays the same character and I don't think she's a great actress. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was incredible, though. I was interested in the film noir aesthetic/writing style and I think that the film really did interesting things with it. Will and I both wanted to see it because it sort of took his idea that he's had for a long time to do a high school film noir. Maybe he'll tell you more about that later. I still think that he can do better with it.

Will: That's true - the high school film noir is an idea I'd had, but this was rather far from mine. It was a noir in story and certainly in dialogue; it was a fantastic script. I love Levitt's tough-guy talk, dropping "She knows where I eat lunch" with all the gusto of a 1950's private eye. Aesthetically, it was more of a gritty indie, but I still enjoyed the visual look a good deal. I agree that "missing/dead girl" plotlines have grown a little stale, but this one at least played around with the story a bit. What I liked most about the film though, and this is probably because of my own miserable high school experience, was that the story was really exploring the complexity of the high school experience. The violence and seedy underbelly was certainly a far stretch from my high school experience (and probably that of anybody's) but the emotions of the characters and importance of the situations resonated with me. I have always sought out similar work - from Buffy and now Veronica Mars to novels like The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler. This is my kind of teen movie - complete without an emo soundtrack.

Hillary: Yes, I loved the writing- the slang the characters use is great. I admit - I think I'd have to see it again to grasp the meaning of all of it. I found myself not understanding everything they were saying, but I think that was the point. The high school + film noir writing was a perfect fit for this movie. I agree with Will, this movie, though hyperbolic, respects and acknowledges that young adults in high school make very difficult decisions and are faced with very real problems and emotions in their lives. The teen experience has been packaged and marketed into a goofy athletes & cheerleaders plot since the 50's or maybe longer. This was always alienating to me and definitely did not relate to my high school experience either. I was really into theater in high school and so it was cool to actually see a stage and set getting more traffic than a football field. The movie disregarded stereotypes, kept me on the edge of my seat and surprised me with its twists and humor. I'm glad we saw it.

Will: I certainly liked Brick and the novelty of the high school setting did not wear off. I do think, however, that the plot wavered a bit towards the end and I didn't find the payoff completely satisfying. Nonetheless, one of the more interesting films this year and I think Johnson has serious potential both as a writer and a director. The overall dark tone of the film was captured so well, through brilliant use of music and select use of quick cuts.

::Trailer::