Wednesday Rewind: Brick by @destroytheearth

It is the ultimate of high concepts: "Let's set The Maltese Falcon in high school!" It's mental, and it would likely have fallen apart were it not for one thing: conviction.

Brick makes not one step towards making a lick of sense; being more akin to one of those modern Shakespeare adaptations that are set on a council estate where everyone still speaks olde English and calls the local gang leader "my liege". Everyone in the film speaks and acts like they are in a 50s Noir film, despite being in the middle of smoking behind the bike sheds.


The producers may have started it, but it is the cast who follow it through. Young, yes, but every single cast member outdoes every one of the last ten oscar winners. Holding it all together is, unbelievably, that girly kid out of 3rd Rock From The Sun - Joseph Gordon-Levitt - who proves, once again, that former comedians make the best serious actors; and for the same reason: conviction.

Elsewhere, Heroes' Nora Zehetner and Roswell and Lost's Emilie De Ravin complete a devious duet of femme fatales and the unappreciated Lukas Haas brings the film's most contrived character to technicolour life. Combine them all with photo-gallery-artistic angles, whipsmart dialogue (just take a look at the memorable quotes page from imdb) and a plot that is, for once, genuinely intriguing, as well as moving, and you have a near perfect movie.



Brick is not a film you enjoy, it is a film you fall in love with. Few have heard of it, it fell far under the radar, but those who've seen it share a knowing smile when it's mentioned. Ask anyone in the know if they think they still make films as good as those that Brick mimics and they'll tell you to go watch Brick and then tell them that that magic can't be achieved any more.

Today's post was a rant from Neil: a former pharmaceutical journalist who lost his career and his sanity in the recession and now writes this blog to stop him forgetting how to spell. He is obsessed with films, books, comics, scifi, burlesque, circus arts and his fiancee, with whom he lives in a run down flat opposite a sex shop in Folkestone. He one day hopes to complete his second novel and have it published, but in the mean time you can read his short fiction blog or follow him on Twitter at @destroytheearth. He has also written a similar post on this blog before, but is certain Brick deserves two posts.