Movie Review: Brick

I'll be writing more about my trip to India, but in the mean time, I wanted to do a quick review on a movie I enjoyed recently called "Brick"

Brick is a fast-paced and mesmerizing journey taken on the coat tails of the main character Brendan, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Yes, that Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The movie begins with Brendan in a catcher's stance, overlooking the limp body of his ex-girlfriend Emily who's found lying next to the shallow stream of an aquaduct that leads through a dark tunnel. The movie is much like this dark tunnel that Brendan moves through, covering suprises that leap out at him and the audience yet leaving much to the imagination as to what will happen next.

The movie's setting is in high school in a California-like area complete with coastal drives and ocean-splashed sunsets. Brendan is an outcast by preference who has distanced himself even further from the teenage society that he loathes after being dumped by Emily who has entered a shady counter culture ruled by sex, drugs and muscle.

He fearlessly returns to this world after receiving a cry for help from her on a pay phone, in the form of a confusing yet angst-filled conversation that is riddled with terms and characters that he must then decipher against the clock. Enlisting the help of his only apparent friend, a coke-bottle-glasses-wearing savant named "Brain", he follows a path that leads him from one seductress in the drug ring, another ex-girlfriend named Kara, to another named Laura as both girls perhaps represent the models that Emily aspires to be.

He trusts no one on his quest aside from his gifted side kick who provides him information on all of the the "players" in this deadly game that he joins in on. He takes multiple beatings and even an attempt on his life, narrowly dodging fatal blows and using his cunning to avoid a ticket out of the high drama that he has partaken in. Though Emily finds him disenchanting and refuses to recriprocate the feelings that he has for her, its these feelings that empower him in an environment that at first seems out of his league. Though he is by far the most clever character on the school campus and its shady outskirts, he must rely on his guts to move forward.

His progress takes him to "The Pin" a character played by Lukas Haas, one who is at the center of the ring and protected by a testosterone-filled and muscle-bound thug named "Tugger" played by Noah Fleiss. Both characters take Brendan into their inner circle as he avoids their suspicions, using his cool demeanor and quick-working intellect. He finds that Laura has also found her way into this same circle most likely by using similar traits along with her seductive charm. Brendan immediately finds her to be the most dangerous of the three as he understands his own lack of immunity against her sexual power.

The movie is beautifully done and filled with wonderful dialog, using some slang that will require some translation (I included a glossary provided through IMDB). I enjoyed the conversational warfare between Brendan and the bad guys as well the banter that he shares with the Brain. The words are very cleverly written and have somewhat of a rhythem to them. All of the main characters are intense and very intriguing. There's a great early scene in the movie in which Laura delivers a piano-accompanied soliloquy that's very easy on the ears (as she is on the eyes). I saw this movie twice, which gives you a sense of how much I enjoyed it.


Glossary:

Blow - to leave, depart
"Did she blow last night?"

Bulls-Cops; can also mean to turn over to the cops
"What first, tip the bulls?";"I bulled the rat".

Burg-Town, City
"He knows every twobit toker in the burg".

Copped-Stole
"She copped the junk"

Dose - To take drugs
"He dosed off the bad junk and it laid him out."

Duck Soup - Easy pickings

Gat - Gun

Heel - To walk away from (and show your heels to)
"I'm not heeling you to hook you".

Hop;Junk;Jake - Drugs

Pick - A ride in a car, (As in pick up)
'Did she get a pick?"

Reef Worm - A stoner (variation of reefer)
"he's a pot skulled reef worm with more hop in his head than blood."

Scape - a patsy to take the blame (scape goat)

Scrapped - Begged off of, cadged from
"Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they'll say they scraped it off..."

Shamus - A private detective

Shine - To wield (as with a weapon)
"He shines a blade"

Sprang - Orignated.
"His gat sprang from Tugger's gang."

Take a powder - To slip away
"Why'd you take a powder the other night?"

Yeg - guy
"They'd probably find some yeg to pin it on."