Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir film written and directed by Rian Johnson. It was Johnson's directorial debut and won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.^[1] Brick was distributed by Focus Features, opening in New York and Los Angeles on April 7, 2006.

The film's narrative centers on a hardboiled detective story that takes place in a Californian suburb. Most of the main characters are high school students. The film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from hardboiled classics, especially from Dashiell Hammett. The title refers to a block of heroin, compressed roughly to the size and shape of a brick.

Plot[link]

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High school student Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is living a lonely existence after breaking up with his girlfriend Emily Kostich (Emilie de Ravin) and betraying his friend Jerr to the authorities.

Brendan receives a phone call from a terrified Emily. She begs him to help her, mentioning a "brick," "poor Frisco," and "the Pin" before abruptly and fearfully hanging up. Her fear appears to have been due to a passing car, from which a distinctive-looking cigarette was thrown. Brendan starts searching for Emily and is eventually able to arrange a meeting through Dode (Noah Segan), leader of a stoner clique that Emily now belongs to. When they meet, Emily recants what she said on the phone and tells Brendan he needs to let her go. Brendan steals her notepad during the encounter, where he finds a clue that leads him to a culvert where he finds her dead body.

Brendan takes it upon himself to solve her murder, enlisting the aid of fellow loner Brain (Matt O'Leary). Brendan returns to the storm drain and hides the body to avoid police intrusion. Brendan discovers that "The Pin" mentioned by Emily is a local drug baron. Brendan sets about getting The Pin's attention by beating up Brad Bramish (Brian J. White), an arrogant jock and regular customer of The Pin's. Afterwards, Brendan is beaten up by an unknown man.

When Brendan meets The Pin (Lukas Haas), it is revealed the unknown man is Tug (Noah Fleiss). He is The Pin's head enforcer. The Pin is persuaded to consider Brendan for a spot in his operation. Laura (Nora Zehetner), Brad's squeeze, tells Brendan that Emily tried to join The Pin but was rejected and, in her state of addiction, stole a brick of concentrated pure heroin from him. Laura offers to help Brendan, who refuses because he knows she is just using Brad and so is unworthy of trust.

The Pin tells Brendan he's been accepted. When Brendan acts on a message to go to a payphone he gets a call from Dode, who tells him he saw Brendan hide Emily's body and, believing Brendan to be the murderer, vows to ruin him. Brendan meets with The Pin, who expresses distrust of Tug and his violent nature and suspects an uprising on Tug's part.

Brain learns that "poor Frisco" is Frisco Farr, a student who fell into a coma after injecting poorly-cut heroin. Brendan goes to The Pin's house where he finds Tug. Playing on the bad blood between Tug and The Pin, he learns that The Pin initially received a shipment of ten bricks. He has sold eight but the ninth was stolen and came back doctored. The Pin interrupts to tell Tug about meeting someone who knows what happened to Emily. Brendan, weakened from several recent fistfights, intercepts Dode before the meeting and discovers Emily was pregnant when she died. Dode tries to tell Tug and The Pin that Brendan killed Emily, but Tug goes berserk and shoots Dode in the face. Tug then threatens The Pin, who walks away as Brendan faints due to internal bleeding.

Brendan awakes in the bedroom of Tug, who says he's now at war with The Pin. Brendan acts as a go-between for Tug and The Pin and arranges a meeting. That night Brendan sleeps with Laura, noticing that she smokes the same distinctive cigarettes as seen earlier, during Emily's first phone call. Brendan offers to drive Tug's car to the meet, in case The Pin has an ambush set up. At the meeting, chaos erupts when it is discovered that the last brick is missing. Tug beats The Pin to death while Brendan flees, getting out of the house just as police (summoned by Brain per Brendan's orders) arrive. As he walks away he passes the trunk of Tug's car, where Emily's body is visible (presumably Brendan put it there).

The next day, Brendan meets with Laura and reveals that he knows she set Emily up to be killed. Laura made Emily take the fall for the first brick, which Laura had stolen, sold half of, and tried to replace with detergent (which led to Frisco's coma). She manipulated Emily into meeting Tug, letting him believe he was responsible for Emily's pregnancy and hoping he would kill her when he found out. It is also revealed that Laura later stole the brick from The Pin's house, thereby intending to set off a fight and hoping that all of the major players would kill one another. Brendan tells Laura he has revealed all this in a note to the Vice Principal (Richard Roundtree), who finds the brick in Laura's locker. Laura vindictively tells Brendan that Emily was three months pregnant when she died, implying that the baby was his. The movie ends with Brendan watching Laura as she walks away.

Cast[link]

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan Frye
• Emilie de Ravin as Emily Kostich
• Nora Zehetner as Laura Dannon
• Matt O'Leary as The Brain
• Noah Fleiss as Tugger "Tug"
• Lukas Haas as The Pin
• Brian J. White as Brad Bramish
• Meagan Good as Kara
• Noah Segan as Dode
• Richard Roundtree as Assistant Vice Principal Trueman

Production[link]

Development[link]

Rian Johnson with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in March 2012.

The origins of Brick were Rian Johnson's obsession with the writing of Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961),^[1] an author known for hardboiled detective novels, and his desire to make a straightforward American detective story. He had discovered Hammett's work through an interview the Coen brothers did around the time of the release of their 1990 gangster film, Miller's Crossing. He read Red Harvest (1929) and then moved on to The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Glass Key (1931), the latter of which had been the main influence for the Coen's Miller's Crossing.^[2] Johnson had grown up watching detective films and film noir, and reading Hammett's novels inspired him to make a film that created the same kind of world.^[2] He realized that this would result in a mere imitation and came up with high school as the setting to keep things fresh. Of the initial writing process he remarked "it was really amazing how all the archetypes from that detective world slid perfectly over the high school types". He also wanted to disrupt the visual preconceptions that came from the film noir genre but once he started making Brick, he found it "very much about the experience of being a teenager to me".^[2] Despite this admission, Johnson maintained that the film was not autobiographical.^[1]

Johnson wrote the first draft of Brick in 1997 after graduating from USC School of Cinematic Arts a year earlier.^[2] He spent the next seven years pitching his script but none of the Hollywood studios or production companies were interested because the material was too unusual to make with a first-time director. Johnson estimated the minimal amount of money for which he could make the film, and asked friends and family for backing.^[2] His family were in the construction industry, and came into a significant amount of money which they devoted to the project, thereby encouraging others to contribute funds.^[1] After Johnson had acquired about $450,000 for the film's budget,^[1] Brick finally began production in 2003.

Filming[link]

Although the film was shot in 20 days, Johnson spent a great deal of time beforehand refining the script and three months to rehearse with the cast.^[1] He had seen Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a film called Manic, met with him and knew that he wanted the young actor to be in his film.^[2] He encouraged the cast to read Hammett but not to watch any noir films because he did not want them influencing their performances. Instead, he had them watch Billy Wilder comedies like The Apartment and other comedies like His Girl Friday. He was initially nervous working with a professional cast and crew for the first time but as soon as he started filming, this feeling went away and he had a good experience.^[2]

Johnson shot the film in his hometown of San Clemente, California on 35 mm film stock. Much of the film takes place at San Clemente High School, which he attended. He enlisted current students to work on the film, shooting on weekends so as not to disrupt classes. The cinematographer was Steve Yedlin, a friend Johnson had met in film school who had been involved with the project since the script was written.^[1]

Johnson had difficulty finding a run-down house for the Pin's base of operations. The production found an appropriate house but only had a week before it was destroyed for a more upscale house. Johnson also had difficulty finding a mansion for the party scene until, with one day left to find the location, a former Telecom executive allowed them to shoot in his place which was still under construction.

Johnson cited Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns and Cowboy Bebop as influences on his visualization of the movie.^[3][4] He used shoes as a design element for his characters and saw them as an "instant snapshot of the essence" of the characters.^[5] He has also stated that many of the film's visual cues were taken from the neo-noir Chinatown (1974) with its wide-open flat spaces.

Special effects[link]

The majority of the film's special effects were cheaply and efficiently produced using practical and in-camera effects.^[6] Early in the film, for example, Emilie de Ravin walks toward the camera out of a tunnel as a garbage bag floats downstream and engulfs the camera, transitioning over to Joseph Gordon-Levitt back in his character's bedroom. To achieve this, the desired effect was filmed in reverse order. The garbage bag began over the camera and was pulled away during filming, as de Ravin walked backwards into the tunnel. This footage was then cut to a scene in which a garbage bag was simply pulled over Gordon-Levitt's head.^[6]

Slowly filming a car driving in reverse, then playing the footage backwards at a higher speed gives the illusion of a car quickly approaching as the camera darts in front of it stylishly.^[6] Clever fades give the impression of time changes while quick jump cuts add tension to a scene in which the protagonist wakes up after passing out. Certain edits were also introduced to the film to time footage to different dialogue, adding certain information and leaving other information out completely. These edits are noticeable, as the actors' mouths are not always moving in sync with their dialogue. One particular scene, in which de Ravin's character floated toward the camera, used a green screen, but it was edited out of the film far before its completion.^[6]

Post production[link]

The original cut of the film was over two hours long, although it was edited down to 117 minutes for the Sundance Film Festival. An additional 7 minutes were cut before the theatrical release, including a shot of Zehetner's naked back as she put her shirt back on after she and Gordon-Levitt's character had sex. According to a post by Johnson on his own forums, he felt that the shot with nudity felt wrong in the context of the film, and that he preferred to leave the degree of intimacy ambiguous, although he occasionally finds himself second-guessing that decision.^[7][8]

Score and soundtrack[link]

The score to Brick was composed by Rian Johnson's cousin, Nathan Johnson, with additional support and music from The Cinematic Underground. The score harks back to the style, feel and overall texture of noir films. It features traditional instruments such as the piano, trumpet and violin, and also contains unique and invented instruments such as the wine-o-phone, metallophone, tack pianos, filing cabinets, and kitchen utensils, all recorded with one microphone on an Apple PowerBook. Since Nathan Johnson was in England during most of the production process, the score was composed almost entirely over Apple iChat, with Rian Johnson playing clips of the movie to Nathan Johnson, who would then score them. The two later met in New York to mix the soundtrack. The soundtrack CD of the movie was released on March 12, 2006 by Lakeshore Records. In addition to Johnson's score, it contains songs by The Velvet Underground, Anton Karas and Kay Armen as well as the big band version of "Frankie and Johnny" performed by Bunny Berigan and a full unedited performance of "The sun whose rays are all ablaze" by Nora Zehetner. Johnson has confirmed that various elements in the film are influenced by Twin Peaks creator David Lynch.^[7]

Home media[link]

The Region 1 DVD release of Brick was released on August 8, 2006 as part of the Focus Features Spotlight Series. Special features include: selection of deleted and extended scenes with introductions by director Rian Johnson; audition footage featuring Nora Zehetner and Noah Segan; and feature audio commentary with Rian Johnson, Nora Zehetner, Noah Segen, producer Ram Bergman, production designer Jodie Tillen, and costume designer Michele Posch.

The Region 2 DVD was released on September 18, 2006.

Reception[link]

Brick premiered in the United States on April 7, 2006 in two theaters. It opened to United Kingdom audiences on May 12, 2006 on a limited number of screens. According to the DVD commentary track, the film was made for just under $500,000. The film grossed USD $2.07 million in North America and a total of $3.9 million worldwide.^[9]

Brick was released to positive reviews. It currently has a 79% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, derived from 134 reviews,^[10] and ranked #35 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Best High School Movies".^[11] Based on 34 reviews, Metacritic gave it an average score of 72 out of 100 ("Generally positive reviews").^[12]

Brick ranks 489th on Empire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.^[13]

Awards[link]

See also[link]

• Laura (1944 film)
• To Have and Have Not

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Brick

• Brick at the Internet Movie Database
• Brick at AllRovi
• Brick at Rotten Tomatoes
• Brick at Box Office Mojo
• Brick Forum run by director Rian Johnson
• Photos from the film set
• In-depth analysis of Brick at Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir
• Brick Review from JoBlo
• "The Young Man and the Screenplay" - Writers Guild of America interview