BRICK (2005): Neo Noir Teenage Angst
December 6th 2008 05:52
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Teenage Bogart wannabe: Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan
Those circles are ruled by popularity queen Laura (Nora Zehetner), the chief femme fatale with unclear loyalties and the weakest link in the neo-noir concept of the film, as she succeeds mostly at being blank. Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not was barely 19, so age is no excuse for a lack of screen charisma. Other players include Kara (Meagan Good), the local drama queen and femme fatale #2, and Tugger the thug (Noah Fleiss), a caricature of a character and hence the main source of the film's giggles. His boss, The Pin (Lukas Haas), would be almost camp with his duck-head cane and limp if the actor played it up a bit. As it stands, Haas fared better as the bunny-slipper-wearing son of Bruce Willis in the adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions.
First time feature director Rian Johnston, whose main influence is the language and plots of Dashiell Hammett's novels, claims: "Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it's the most serious time of your life." His dogged commitment to his vision is admirable and makes for an impressive first feature, aided by mostly good performances and original dialogue. However, the film takes itself a little too seriously: a larger dose of dark humour would have alleviated the aura of self-conscious arthouse pretension and existential dreariness of the subject matter. Instead of reminding us of classic high school dark satires such as Heathers, Brick more closely resembles the slapstick comedy Bugsy Malone in which both gangsters and police were played by children (including a young Jodie Foster). That one could be forgiven for lacking a sense of irony, as slapstick and irony do not mix well, but noir without it is, well, often just dreary. Despite this, Brick is more of a breakthrough in the teen drama genre rather than the film noir cannon, aptly reflecting the cynicism and vacuousness of adolescent angst in a language from another era. Judging by viewer's online comments, mostly more favourable than the critics' opinions, Brick might have a chance on the young cult viewing circuit.
Review by Patricia Bieszk
© Copyright P. Bieszk 2006.
Originally published on The Scene.
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