Actors: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O'Leary, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Brick
Brendan Frye (Gordon-Levitt, who looks a little like "River's Edge"-era Keanu Reeves), a loner at a southern California high school, hasn't seen his sometime girlfriend Emily (de Ravin) for several days. A phone call from her asking for help sends him on a search until he finds her body outside a culvert, maybe hearing her murderer escaping down the dark tunnel.
Enlisting the help of "The Brain" (O'Leary) for research and surveillance, Brendan vows to track down Emily's killer and becomes a classic 1930s private eye. The trail takes him to a party at the home of rich girl Laura (Zehetner), drama club rehearsals and actress fatale Kara (Megan Good), dumb jock Brad, and most ominously, the out-of-school drug lord known as The Pin (as in, Kingpin, played by Haas, who was the little boy in "Witness") and his nasty muscleman Tugger (Fleiss). Brendan also gets hauled before the school vice principal, Mr. Truelove (Richard Roundtree), who tries to get the boy working on his side, too.
At the center of it all is a missing -- and possibly poisoned -- brick of heroin. The work of writer-director Rian Johnson, "Brick" might be called a spoof of noir except that it plays its story absolutely straight. It caused a sensation at the 2005 Sundance Festival.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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Analysis of Brick
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie Actual chase scenes or violence - 20% Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How difficult to spot villain?
- Moderately Challenging
Time/Era of Movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Murder Mystery?
Yes
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 40%
Murders of set profession?
- students
Misc. Plotlets
- victim dies just after sex
Kind of mystery?
- amateur citizen investigator
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- a teen
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (woman) long straight
Body type
- average (woman)
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- mastermind
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 40%
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- skinny (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- healthy but a geeky weakling
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- all mixed up
How many deaths in film?
- 2
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
Kind of violence:
- knives
Unusual forms of death
- asphyxiation
Any profanity?
- None
