Brick (DVD)

We didn't really give Brick a fair shake when it came out, actually we didn't give it any shake at all, but it's an interesting movie that I'm glad it isn't remaining shakeless. Brick is a teen movie made for adults, a film with poetry and mystery, the closest to classification one could get would be teen noir but it's way more cool than that sounds.

The kid (Joseph Gordon Levitt) from the always underrated Ten Things I Hate About You plays the male lead named Brendan, but he's grown up seven years here and has lost all traces of innocence. The film starts out with him receiving a troubling phone call from his ex girlfriend Emily and things proceed to go very south from there. So south in fact that it becomes hard to tell which end is up with the only constant being the overall darkness of the piece.

Brick is definitely a DVD worth purchasing for the dialogue alone. This film is crazy complex, along the lines of Memento, and would certainly stand up to multiple viewings. It has real moments of comedy and innovation, but they are subtle and situational, if you aren't paying attention you'll miss them. Take a tip from me though, watch with the subtitles on, the dialogue is so quick and different from anything you've heard that you'll quickly become lost if you can't read along.

As for the extras, well, the commentary is not so helpful. It seems as though the director (Rian Johnson) generally wants to talk about something other than what's on screen, yeah it is still about the movie but it isn't germane to anything you're watching. Also the commentary has around eight people on it, but not all at once, instead they are given little ten minute slots each. The only constant is the director and he's not interesting enough to carry the thread. This is kind of strange given how good the movie is but I guess great commentaries and great movies don't always go together.

There are also deleted scenes but with the movie running near two hours already they seem like things I would have deleted too. Rian does a good job of pointing out why certain things changed or were re-shot, so I can't fault him there. The one cool feature is the auditions, we only get two, but the first one is of the female lead (Nora Zehetner) and she's really quite amazing in it. I would have cast her. The second audition is for a smaller part and isn't really that interesting because the character isn't in much.

You should catch this one as a rental or buy it if you have the resources. It is one of the more interesting smaller budget films in a good long while and I'd hope it at least finds a niche audience, it deserves that at least. Great dialogue, a compelling plot, a new genre, this one has a lot going on. If you pick it up let me know, I'll come over, I could stand to watch it a few more times myself.