Brick

            This movie is amazing. I love independent movies, and this one is actually a really unique concept. It’s all at once a serious and enveloping drama, as it is a dark comedy, and funny romantic detective story. SO it’s actually my favorite genre of all time, so it’s hard to go wrong.

            This is a film noir. This is like any detective story with Humphry Bogart. This is the Maltese Falcon. The catch, the hook, is that it’s set in a high school. All the classic devices in film noir are translated into the nature and culture of high school. The best example is that instead of saying “He knows where he can find me” or something to that affect, the characters say “He knows where I eat lunch.” Because lunch is the big social time at high school.

            There’s a hundred good adaptations of the same nature. The dialogue is brilliant, and the characters are all so thematic and archetypical. It’s beautiful. Shot at San Clemente High, this is a no apologies crime drama set in a world just like high school.

This is the movie I dreamed about making in high school, but wasn’t creative enough to write.

            It also stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Halloween H20) who is one of the more unapologetic and subtle actors of his generation. He’s not a teen heart throb silly  boy like Josh Hartnett, although he could have been packaged that way. So, his lead is perfect for the story. Other characters are all the independent, subtle approach, but all experienced. It’s a terrific murder mystery that turns into a narcotics mystery.

            Abslutely Brilliant 2.