BRICK (Dir. Rian Johnson)
When it comes to film noir - cum - high school detective movies, it doesn't getter much stranger than Brick. There aren't many films in the category, sure, but Brick is certainly an unusual film. Set in the dry suburbs of California, the film follows a teenage detective (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as he finds out who's responsible for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, dragging him into the high school drug underworld.

It's a difficult sell, and the script is thick, quick and full of detective slang that makes the film harder to understand than Inception but without all those dreams-within-dreams. Nonetheless, if you follow the gist of Brick, it's a rewarding watch. It's stylish - almost too much so, as the film often drags and catches on its own stylings. Nonetheless, the cinematography is excellent and the minimalist music is - erm - fitting. That's the nice way of saying it.

The genius of Brick comes in its throwbacks to film noir classics of the 50s, with all the key characters - the nerdy informant, the dangerous femme fatale, the mob boss, and of course the outsider detective - represented by teenagers at the school. There's even a smattering of West Side Story-esque gang wars near the end. The American high school is the perfect location to recreate all these stereotypes in a controlled, smaller environment, but throughout the film I couldn't help thinking that it was trying to be more serious than it could ever be with quirks like 'who's eating lunch with who' being the high school equivalent of 'who's in with who'. There's also a certain monotony and predictability in the format, in Gordon-Levitt's stoïc acting, and in the improbability of it all.

If you're a fan of film noir, and willing to take Brick's twists and turns, give it a go. As a stylistic exercise, it's spot-on.

 ★★★★☆