Brick

On the subject of well written films, I watched the movie Brick last night. This was the third time I had seen it and it is one of those movies that just keeps getting better. The concept is to take some good hard-boiled dialogue, Dashiel Hammet style, and put it in the setting of California suburbia. That has been done before, I am thinking of Altman's The Long Goodbye (not suburbia, but it has that pale sun-washed look to it).

The twist in Brick is that it all happens with in the sub-culture of High School. Instead of Sam Spade or Philip Marlow, we get a high school kid, Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) trying to figure out who killed his girlfriend. He has the brainy helper (named, of course, "The Brain"), who instead of nervously fumbling with a cigarette plays with a Rubik's cube. There's plenty of femme fatales and girls on the wrong side of the tracks. There's a crime boss called The Pin (as in King Pin) that has a cape and a walking cane and is one of the "older guys", clocking in at 26.

The script is so sharp in bouncing between film noir and dark dark comedy, so dark it is barely there, as they play it mostly straight. But I am a smirking through the classic scene where the private dick goes toe to toe with the head of the police (you know the scene, where the shamus asks for some room, lay off, and the cop asks for the inside scoop or he will have to come down hard) - it's all there, except this time it is Brendan in the office getting the heat from the Asst. Vice-Principal. Mr. Trueman.

Trueman: Alright Brendan. I've been looking to talk to you. You've helped out this office before.

Brendan: No. I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed.

Trueman: Fine, and well put.

Brendan: Accelerated English, Mrs. Kasprzyk.

Trueman: Tough teacher?

Brendan: Tough but fair.

Trueman: Mm. Anyway then, we know you're clean, and you've, despite your motives, you've been an asset to us. I think you're a good kid.

Brendan: Uh huh.

Trueman: I want to run a couple of names by you.

Tense stuff. Great movie and quite cool website.
You never heard it from me.
...um, well actually you did, but you know, on the low side, quiet town.