Brick

From Zanecorpwiki

An interesting concept movie that ends up tripping all over itself. DVD.

Summary

The movie is all about the concept: do a nior style private dick movie... set in high school. Sure it sounds silly, but that's not really the problem with the movie. In fact, the idea is actually a pretty good one.

The problem is that the movie just doesn't have the restraint that a good nior film should have. It's too much violence without enough tension. Too many characters. Too many angles. And way, way too much dialog. It's always trying to turn things to 11.

Instead of adding more interest, it just made the movie played out. By the second half, I kept thinking, "That's the tenth time I've heard that catchphrase. The movie gets too caught up in being clever and never takes a step back. It completely lacks the negative space that the kind of movie it's trying to imitate needs.

It's not a bad movie. I'd even recommend it to some people. I just don't think it succeeds in the task it sets out for itself.

Notes and Details

I'd probably have liked it better if it weren't a concept movie. You could almost take the script and do a gritty-nior inspired modern action flick thing. If you're going to do a concept, you have to keep everything else relatively straight. Do a nior film set in highschool--fine--but don't add in action sequences and this modern tough guy thing and an extra-dense plot.

In the end, the concept of the high school setting is completely superfluous. It's not a nior homage, so what is it? A blend of nior-action-mystery-adult-thriller... set in high school? What's the point? It almost seems calculated to disappoint. Adults can't appreciate the sexuality because it's kids. Most kids don't have the experience to get the references. It's like the AV club was given a big budget and made a movie that only the 6 kids in the club could really get into.

Maybe that's really intended audience, in which case, I guess the film is a success. The problem with that is that by the time those kids are 25, they're going to look back on the film as an immature mess.

I'm really kicking this one around because at first, I was really into it. So I'm worrying it, when I should just let it go.