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Brick, a review by goodguy

Brick (2005) Written & directed by: Rian Johnson Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss, Emilie de Ravin, Lukas Haas DVD: R1-US Universal (2006) My rating:

Cover blurb: Brendan Frye is a loner, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves turns up dead, he is determined to find the "who" and "why" and plunges into the dark and dangerous social strata of rich girl Laura, intimidating Tug, drug-addled Dode, seductive Kara, and the ominous Pin. But who can he really trust? These are the ingredients of 'Brick', a gritty and provocative thriller that critics describe as "a clever, twist-filled whodunit!" (Claudia Puig, 'USA Today')

In 2006, a bunch of Noir movies (film noirs? films noir?) came into the cinema. There was Hollywoodland, which I haven't seen. Then there was The Black Dahlia, De Palma's big budget retro noir, an overall boring exercise that didn't do anything new or interesting. And there was Brick, Rian Johnson's debut feature.

Actually, Brick already appeared in early 2005 at Sundance, where it won the Special Jury Price for Originality of Vision. In 2006 it was released theatrically. In Germany, it was a big hit at the Fantasy Film Fest.

Brick essentially is a Film Noir set in high school. Veronica Mars, you may think, but that's not quite it. While VM may have coined the term "teen noir" and brought it to a wider audience, VM remains a high school series that somewhat undecidedly plays around with Noir elements. With Brick, it is the other way around.

The first thing you will notice is the language. It is all hard-boiled Noir dialogue, complete with 30s/40s slang expressions. It probably sounds more like Hammett than he himself ever did. It is that highly condensed, that archetypical. The same is true for the characters, the morally ambiguous detective, the femme fatale, the dead damsel, the mysterious man in the background, etc. What Johnson does is not a mix of Noir and high school drama, it is a transposition. Which isn't just a gimmick, btw. It is taken absolutely serious and it makes perfect sense, just as early Buffy's "high school is hell" premise did.

Visually, Rian Johnson takes some cues from film noir, but with the style already firmly established in the language, he is free to experiment a little more here. Aided by a wonderful and simple score, there is a somewhat dreamy quality to his images that reminded me just a tiny bit of Altman's noir hommage The Long Goodbye.

The entire young cast is great, especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who gives a wonderful physical performance as the hero who gets beaten up a lot on his journey.

This might sound like a sacrilege considering the classics, but Brick has become my favorite Film Noir and made it into my all-time movie top ten.

DVD Notes:

While I have the R1, the R2-UK (Optimum) has some additional extras, most notably an interview with Rian Johnson and a featurette about the making of the score.


(From goodguy's Watch Log on September 6th, 2009)

9, a review by addicted2dvd

9 (2009/United States) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | Universal Studios Home Entertainment Director: Shane Acker Writing: Pamela Pettler (Screenwriter), Shane Acker (Story By) Length: 79 min. Rating: Rated PG-13 : Violence and Scary Images Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

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Stars:
Christopher Plummer as #1
Martin Landau as #2
John C. Reilly as #5
Crispin Glover as #6
Jennifer Connelly as #7
Fred Tatasciore as #8

Plot:Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Bonus Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• 9 - The Original Short with Optional Commentary

Decided to watch this one with my daughter today. We both been wanting to check it out for some time now. This one I enjoyed quite a bit. The graphics on this animated movie was fantastic... and I enjoyed the storyline as well. Definitely one I feel comfortable recommending. Brittany on the other hand wasn't too impressed with this one.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Unwatched DVDs on June 30th, 2013)

Blood Ties Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

4. Gifted
When the mother of an 8-year-old girl is killed in suspicious circumstances, Vicki & Henry investigate and discover that the girl may be more involved then they thought. Meanwhile Mike deepens his investigation on Henry, and confronts him with the startling information he's found.

Guest Stars:
Keith Dallas
Francoise Yip
Cassandra Sawtell
Gordon Michael Woolvett

My Thoughts:
This is the last episode on disc 1. Sure I have seen the child with mental powers storyline before... but I really enjoyed this episode. I had wondered if Vicki's ex partner Mike would find out what Henry is. And that question was answered in this episode. But didn't go into very much detail on it. As it happened right at the end of the episode. Making it so I can't wait to see the next episode!

My Rating:

(From Blood Ties Marathon on December 27th, 2009)