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How about another Movie Club? This one did alright: 40 replies from a bunch of different people...
MoFo MC August: Brick
I'll make a poll for December. This month is possibly the busiest month of my life thus far
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I liked Brick, I thought it was unique to blend a high school in a film noir genre. The dialogue is snappy, even if it takes some getting use to.
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Suspect's Reviews
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."
Suspect's Reviews
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Brick
You can tell how far into Brick you are by how battered Levitt's face is. The dialouge in this film was rich and unique. The props usage was woderful, and compable to that of Personas. Everything had a reason, even the pictures on the wall set the enviorment. Oh ya and Pins cane was awesome. Brick is one of the many films were everything gets added up in the final five minutes, it was done in a cheesy way, but it worked. Levitt played a similar role to his in Mysterious Skin, a troubled youth who resorts to illegal activities as an escape. Rain Johnson, who recently released Looper, made this what it is, and that is an indispensable phsycological thriller.
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Questions
First of all, does anyone not consider this a true noir?
Seems noir enough to me
How many references can you count?
Havent seen to many noir (as demonstrated by film noir list) so none. Maybe after I watch more I'll appreciate this even more.
Why is the Pin's foot bigger than the other?
Well he is a cripple
You can tell how far into Brick you are by how battered Levitt's face is. The dialouge in this film was rich and unique. The props usage was woderful, and compable to that of Personas. Everything had a reason, even the pictures on the wall set the enviorment. Oh ya and Pins cane was awesome. Brick is one of the many films were everything gets added up in the final five minutes, it was done in a cheesy way, but it worked. Levitt played a similar role to his in Mysterious Skin, a troubled youth who resorts to illegal activities as an escape. Rain Johnson, who recently released Looper, made this what it is, and that is an indispensable phsycological thriller.
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Questions
First of all, does anyone not consider this a true noir?
Seems noir enough to me
How many references can you count?
Havent seen to many noir (as demonstrated by film noir list) so none. Maybe after I watch more I'll appreciate this even more.
Why is the Pin's foot bigger than the other?
Well he is a cripple
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Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it
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I guess it's a "neo-noir"? I couldn't get into it the first time I tried but I re-watched later and liked it, although I still couldn't quite get involved in the plot as much as I wanted to. The dialogue was clever, yes, too clever for the movie's own good because it was a constant distraction that pulled me out of it by reminding me how clever it was. I would've liked it to feel more natural, not so stagey and contrived, then I would've enjoyed the movie a lot more, I think.
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#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!
#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!
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I watched Brick last night.
It's technologically competent, apart from a few dodgy sound choices. I mean, it looks good. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always good. The Pin was good and the scene where his mum makes juice for Brendan was hilarious (if slightly at odds with the tone of the rest of the film). The scene at the end between Brendan and Laura had a bit of spark that the rest of the film lacked.
But I found it curiously flat and uninvolving. The plot gave me a headache rather than a sense of tension. Some of the acting was sub-par. There were so many things that just didn't seem to make sense that it took me out of the film.
I think more than not liking this film, I just didn't get it. I didn't really got what it was supposed to be. At times it seemed like a parody that wasn't funny. Plausibility was often sacrificed to concept - Brendan talking back to the Vice Principal like he's a detective talking to the Police Chief, or whatever that scene was supposed to be. It seemed a bit gimmicky, and sometimes the references were shoe-horned in.
I have to agree with mark f about the dialogue:
"Basically the dialogue is supposed to be hard-boiled, but to hear it spoken at times by people who don't even seem to comprehend what they're saying is at times disconcerting."
This, exactly. It was like watching a high-school play, where they're putting on a performance of a Noir film. I also found it hard to understand what they were saying quite frequently, which didn't help my understanding of the plot.
I freely admit that Noir is not my favourite genre of film, and that probably influenced my opinion on this, but I really didn't enjoy it.
It's technologically competent, apart from a few dodgy sound choices. I mean, it looks good. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is always good. The Pin was good and the scene where his mum makes juice for Brendan was hilarious (if slightly at odds with the tone of the rest of the film). The scene at the end between Brendan and Laura had a bit of spark that the rest of the film lacked.
But I found it curiously flat and uninvolving. The plot gave me a headache rather than a sense of tension. Some of the acting was sub-par. There were so many things that just didn't seem to make sense that it took me out of the film.
I think more than not liking this film, I just didn't get it. I didn't really got what it was supposed to be. At times it seemed like a parody that wasn't funny. Plausibility was often sacrificed to concept - Brendan talking back to the Vice Principal like he's a detective talking to the Police Chief, or whatever that scene was supposed to be. It seemed a bit gimmicky, and sometimes the references were shoe-horned in.
I have to agree with mark f about the dialogue:
"Basically the dialogue is supposed to be hard-boiled, but to hear it spoken at times by people who don't even seem to comprehend what they're saying is at times disconcerting."
This, exactly. It was like watching a high-school play, where they're putting on a performance of a Noir film. I also found it hard to understand what they were saying quite frequently, which didn't help my understanding of the plot.
I freely admit that Noir is not my favourite genre of film, and that probably influenced my opinion on this, but I really didn't enjoy it.
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Already started on my 2000-2009 'home work' and this one was high on the must-watch-list mostly because of my love for Knives Out. Challenging effort by Rian Johnson, the 'Noir' genre is a difficult task. Good performance by JGL, Nora Zehetner attractive but not in a femme-fatale way. Ultimately incohesive so not a contender for my list.
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