August 25th, 2006 by Atomictumor
The other night GAC and I rented Brick, and I found it to be one of the best damn movies I think I may have ever seen. Now, I’m not ol’ Joe Powell, and I can’t write a movie review as eloquently as he, but I feel that I must compell you to watch this movie on account of the amount of rockin it did. Not unlike Dokken.
I digress.
The preview for the movie led me to understand that it was about highschools, and probably one of those indie angster kinda things. Something about a dead girl, or somesuch. It looked OK.
But that wasn’t what it was about.
No, this beast channels the spirit of Dashiell Hammett, with the kid from Third Rock doing a DAMN GOOD Bogie. Damn, the dialogue. What you can understand it, because its all deadpan and coming at you a mile a minute, is brilliant. Gems like
“Brendan Frye: Emily said four words I didn’t know. Tell me if they catch. Brick?
The Brain: No.
Brendan Frye: Or Bad Brick?
The Brain: Nope.
Brendan Frye: Tug?
The Brain: Tug? Tug might be a drink, like milk and vodka, or something.
Brendan Frye: Poor Frisco?
The Brain: Frisco? Frisco Farr was a sophomore last year, real trash. Maybe had a class a week, I didn’t know him then, haven’t seen him around.
Brendan Frye: Pin?
The Brain: Pin. The Pin?
Brendan Frye: The Pin, yeah?
The Brain: The Pin is kinda a local spook story, yeah know the King Pin.
Brendan Frye: Yeah, I’ve heard it.
The Brain: Same thing, he’s supposed to be old, like 26. Lives in town.
Brendan Frye: Dope runner, right?
The Brain: Big time. See the Pin pipes it from the lowest scraper for Brad Bramish to sell, maybe. Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they’ll say they scraped it from that, who scored it from this, who bought it off so, and after four or five connections the list always ends with The Pin. But I bet you, if you got every rat in town together and said “Show your hands” if any of them’ve actually seen The Pin, you’d get a crowd of full pockets.
Brendan Frye: You think The Pin’s just a tale to take whatever heat?
The Brain: Hmm… So what’s first?
Brendan Frye: Show of hands. “
Freakin awesome. Go see it just for that, if you have to.
You know what sealed it for me, tho? Out of nowhere, the end credits smack you upside the head with Velvet Underground’s Sister Ray. Yep, 2.5 hours of sunny California high school pulp noir, and you get rewarded with the noisiest music from the ’60s on the black screen. Excellent.
I may actually have to buy this movie.
August 25th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Seriously, folks. That’s your assignment this weekend. If you like the hard-boiled stuff, check it out. It’s got the pretty dame, the vamp, the hard-boiled detective, the brain, the pin and the muscle.
And Joseph Gordon-Levitt is totally hot.
August 26th, 2006 at 1:28 am
The director, Rian Johnson, was film editor for a grossly underrated horror
film from 2002 called May — May is a true gem and very much
worth the effort to find. Funny and very creepy.
Thanks for the heads up on Brick - I had heard of it and if it made
AT happy, that’s all the referral I need!!
August 26th, 2006 at 10:26 am
We watched May a couple of years ago. We expected it to be just another shitty movie, but we both enjoyed it in spite of ourselves.
I read Betsy Pickle’s review of Brick the other day. She said Rian Johnson directed May. Someone didn’t do her fact-checking.
It’s called imdb.com, hon.