Brick (2005)

Shadows in the Basement 

Rian Johnson’s Brick is a neo-noir if I’ve ever seen one. It puts on interesting spin on the neo-noir by setting it in a suburban California high school. The noir characteristics of Brick are manifested in the story of the film more than in the style. Though there are some stylistic nods to noir, such as the dark, shadowy basement filled with shadows that Tugg and Brendan find themselves in part way through the film. The scene at Laura’s party in her room with Brendan featured the dark/light juxtaposition common in noir films through its use of candles. The film also demonstrates a non-linear storyline, which helps amplify suspense and “shows by not showing”. This works well with the quick editing and rapid-fire dialogue (which I will discuss further in a moment).

Femme fatale, high school edition

More noticeably, the plot and story of Brick adhere to many noir characteristics. Perhaps the most prominent is the flawless femme fatal, Laura. She smokes cigarettes (cigarettes which actually lead to Brendan figuring out her role in the scheme) and is often featured in red as she seduces and manipulates the men (and women) around her to work to her advantage. She is cold and calculated but comes across as gentle and feminine. I particularly appreciated how, at the very end of the film, just when you think she’s played all her cards as Brendan accuses her and a tear rolls down her face, she drops the bomb that the baby might have been Brendan’s and walks away with the last victory.

Joseph Gordon Levitt fulfilled the role of lonely anti-hero very well. Although we root for him the entire film, his character is not necessarily likeable and his morality is generally ambiguous; it is hard to tell why he does what he does throughout the film. His character was accented well by Tugg, the “good” bad guy, who slaughters several people in the film but yet somehow garners a bit of our sympathy when we learn of his love for Emily and how Laura used it to play him like a pawn in a game of chess.

I thought the choice to set Brick in a high school worked marvelously well. At first, the gritty, old school crime dialogue which the characters, particularly Brendan, fire off with rapidity seemed awkward and out of place for their age. The more I thought about it though, the more I think it is a genius move playing on the idea of teenagers getting in over their heads and dabbling into things which they are too young to be able to handle. This also had the effect of making them seem like they were “too cool for school”, so to speak, and made me feel how a grandmother might feel listening to her grandkids using current slang terms and having no idea what they’re talking about. The high school setting also contributed moments of absurd humor, like in the scene where Pin’s mom sweetly pours Brendan orange juice and kisses Pin on the head on the way out, totally undermining his constructed identity as a ruthless, fearsome drug lord. The characters seem to hard-boiled and tough but in actuality, they’re just awkward, hormone ridden teenagers who bit off more than they can chew and to situate them in a noir translated particularly well.

            One last thing that I was fond of in this film was the bird motif that was prevalent throughout the film. There’s the ridiculous bird on the mailbox of Pin’s house, another large bird statue in his basement, and the chickens on all of Pin’s mother’s dishware; not to mention the flock of birds that take flight off the football field as Brendan confronts Laura for the last time (who is wearing a bird feather on a headband in her hair). I read these birds, particularly the bird on Pin’s mailbox, as a nod to The Maltese Falcon and another element of noir that was subtle yet powerful.