Ok, back to the movie. The film Brick, released in 2005 was writer/director Rian Johnson’s first full length film, but you wouldn’t be able to tell from the level of confidence this movie commands. In so many ways Brick feels like a bizarre science experiment gone horribly right. Johnson went out on a limb here, mixing the genres of film noir and teen drama. The result is movie that holds your attention with wit and originality, keeps you guessing with twists and turns, and laughing unexpectedly at the moments when these two disparate genres (intentionally/inevitably) collide.
The setting is a southern Californian high school but the cast of characters are just about as archetypal to the detective mystery story as any can be – besides the whole teenager thing. In Brick we meet characters like the brooding outsider detective, the damsel in distress, the sharp and intelligent sidekick, the plotting seductress, the all-muscle-no-brains bad guy, the calm but deadly kingpin, and last but not least the mysterious and dangerous brunette.
The film opens with our detective protagonist Brendan (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) receiving a cryptic phone call from an ex-girlfriend who had left him in order to move up the social ladder but quickly goes missing. Brendan sets out on a mission to find Emily (the blonde in trouble), and in the process dives deeper and deeper into the world of high school royalty, drugs, sex and murder. It’s true that the film feels out of touch with reality most of the time – the dialogue in the film is fast and intelligent, but is intentionally out of place coming from high school kids. Brick is self aware almost to a fault, and I can see where some people may be turned off by the film for its experimental approach. That said there are moments when genuine emotion comes through, and it’s because of these moments the film works as a whole.
Brick’s intentionality almost begs for a gender focused or feminist interpretation of the film. Johnson’s first crack at making a full length film feels original and fresh, even though he is working with some of the most exhausted genres in cinema. That said, I can't help but wonder what the film would have been if Johnson had challenged his (gendered) character archetypes in the same way he worked with genre? A feminist film criticism has to go beyond just judging films on “what ways women are presented in film” and get at the intention of a director and the expectations of an audience. What would this film have looked like if the protagonist detective where a teenage girl? Would that have worked, or just felt like an edgy Nancy Drew?
It could be argued that the way gender is dealt with in the film is simply done for the purpose of adhering to the noir genre. I guess I buy that, but the film seems smarter than this. Without giving away too much of the plot, there is a particular scene when Brendan recalls the moment he and Emily broke up… Brendan had said that he was trying to protect her, that he loved her - Emily’s response was that he couldn’t do that for her, that love didn’t mean ownership. The scene is brief but powerful, and in many ways it serves to define the way gender and love are dealt with in the film. As a guy watching this movie I can empathize with the feeling of wanting to protect/defend/avenge the people (women) we claim to love, and I appreciate how Johnson's film is critical of these feelings. But does the film adequately challenge these gender expectations – especially in light of the other “taditional” (hurtful/misogynistic?) female film noir characters? Should it have to?
These are some questions I hope you’ll be thinking about if you get a chance to see Brick, which I definitely recommend. If you’ve already seen it then think about watching it again – this movie is quick and there is a lot to catch on a second viewing.
