| Brick | |
|---|---|
 Sundance release poster | |
| Directed by | Rian Johnson |
| Written by | Rian Johnson |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Steve Yedlin |
| Edited by | Rian Johnson |
| Music by | Nathan Johnson |
Production company | Bergman Lustig Productions |
| Distributed by | Focus Features |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 110 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $450,000[1] |
| Box office | $3.9 million[2] |
Brick is a 2005 Americanneo-noirmystery thriller film written, edited, and directed byRian Johnson inhis directorial debut, starringJoseph Gordon-Levitt.Brick was distributed byFocus Features, and opened in New York and Los Angeles on April 7, 2006. The film's narrative centers on ahardboileddetective story set in a Californiasuburb. Most of the main characters are high school students. The film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from hardboiled classics, especially those byDashiell Hammett. The title refers to a block ofheroin, compressed roughly to the size and shape of a brick.
The film won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the2005 Sundance Film Festival,[1] and received positive reviews from critics. It has come to be regarded as acult classic.[3]
High school student Brendan Frye discovers a note directing him to a pay phone, where he receives a call from his ex-girlfriend Emily Kostich, begging him for help. She mentions a "bad brick", "the Pin", and "Tug" before abruptly hanging up, apparently afraid of a passing blackFord Mustang, from which a distinctively-branded cigarette is thrown. Unable to locate Emily, Brendan enlists his friend Brain for help. An encounter with another ex-girlfriend, Kara, leads him to a party held by flirtatious upper-class girl Laura Dannon and her boyfriend, Brad Bramish. Laura points Brendan to Dode, Emily's drug-addicted new boyfriend, who arranges a meeting with Emily.
Emily dismisses the phone call as a mistake and tells Brendan to let her go. Brendan steals her notepad and finds a note that leads him to her dead body in a tunnel the following morning where he is beaten by an unidentified assailant. Brendan decides to investigate her murder, hiding the body deeper within the tunnel to avoid police involvement. With help from Brain, Brendan realizes that "the Pin" refers to a localkingpin. Brendan picks a fight with Brad, hoping to attract the Pin's attention. Later, a man wearing abeanie attacks Brendan.
Later Brendan sees the black Mustang in a parking lot and is attacked by the beanie-wearing thug as he demands to meet the Pin instead of fighting back. The man, revealed as Tug and the Pin's main enforcer, takes Brendan to the Pin's house. Laura reveals that she was at the Pin's house as well and drives Brendan back to school. She explains that Emily stole a "brick" of heroin after being rejected by the Pin's operation. Laura offers to help Brendan, but he distrusts her.
The next day, the Pin hires Brendan. Dode calls Brendan and says he saw Brendan hide Emily's body and believes Brendan killed Emily. Brendan meets the Pin, who suspects that Tug is planning to betray him. At the Pin's house, Tug tells Brendan that the Pin had bought ten bricks of heroin and eight were sold off wholesale, the ninth was stolen and returned contaminated, and the final brick remains to be sold. The Pin reveals that Tug was also romantically involved with Emily.
Brendan intercepts Dode on the way to the meeting and discovers Emily was pregnant when she died; Dode believes the baby was his. Brendan arrives at the meeting to find Dode demanding money to reveal who killed Emily. Tug goes berserk and shoots Dode in the head, then threatens the Pin, who walks away as Brendan faints. Brendan awakens in Tug's bedroom, and Tug tells him they are at war with the Pin.
Brendan arranges a meeting between the two and waits in Tug's bedroom. Laura comforts him as he grieves for Emily, and he recognizes her cigarette as the same brand that was dropped from the Mustang during the call with Emily. At the meeting, chaos erupts when it is discovered that the tenth brick is missing. Tug beats the Pin to death while Brendan flees, escaping just as police arrive. As he goes, he passes the open trunk of Tug's car, where he has placed Emily's body to ensure that police blame her murder on Tug.
The next day, Brendan meets Laura at the school. She reveals that Tug died after a shootout with the police. Brendan explains that he knows Laura set Emily up to take the fall for Laura's theft of the ninth brick, then manipulated Emily into meeting Tug, who panicked and killed her after she told him he was the father of her unborn child. Brendan has written a note to the school administration stating that the tenth brick is in Laura's locker. Laura vindictively tells Brendan that Emily did not want to keep the baby because she did not love the father, and that Emily was three months pregnant when she died, meaning the unborn child was his. The movie ends with Brendan and Brain on the football field watching Laura walk away.
The origins ofBrick wereRian Johnson's obsessions withDashiell Hammett's novels.[1] Hammett was known forhardboileddetective novels and Johnson wanted to make a straightforward American detective story. He had discovered Hammett's work through an interview of theCoen brothers about their 1990 gangster film,Miller's Crossing. He readRed Harvest (1929) and then moved on toThe Maltese Falcon (1930) andThe Glass Key (1931), the latter of which had been the main influence for the Coens' film.[4] Johnson had grown up watching detective films and film noir. Reading Hammett's novels inspired him to make his own contribution.[4] He realized that this would result in a mere imitation and set his piece in high school 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 traditions that came from the genre. Once he started makingBrick, he found it "very much about the experience of being a teenager to me".[4] Johnson maintained that the film was not autobiographical.[1]
Johnson wrote the first draft in 1997 after graduating fromUSC School of Cinematic Arts a year earlier.[4] He spent the next seven yearspitching his script, but no one was 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.[4] His family were in the construction industry and contributed enough to encourage others to contribute.[1] After Johnson had acquired about $450,000 for the film's budget,[1]Brick began production in 2003.
Although the film was shot in 20 days, Johnson spent a great deal of time beforehand refining the script and three months rehearsing with the cast.[1] He had seenJoseph Gordon-Levitt inManic (2001), met with him, and knew that he wanted to cast the young actor.[4] 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 watchBilly Wilder comedies likeThe Apartment (1960) andHis Girl Friday (1940). 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.[4]
Johnson shot the film in his hometown ofSan Clemente, California, on35 mm film stock. Much of the film takes place atSan Clemente High School, which he attended. He enlisted current students to work on the film, shooting on weekends. The cinematographer wasSteve Yedlin, a film school friend who had been involved with the project since the script was written.[1]
For the telephone booth scenes, Johnson and crew filmed deep in the San Clemente suburbia. The same sign for the cross streets of Sarmentoso and Camino del Rio still stands. However, the phone booth itself was a prop.
Coffee and Pie Oh My! was aCarrows restaurant, but it has since been abandoned.
The drain tunnel from the film is located just down the street from the San Clemente High School football field and goes under the freeway by the Pico exit off-ramp.
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 until it was demolished to rebuild on its lot. The basement was a set that they built, but the Pin's kitchen and living room still exists at the Blarney Castle bed and breakfast. Johnson also had difficulty finding a mansion for the party scene until, with one day left to find the location, a former Telecom executive and eccentric millionaire allowed them to shoot in his place which was still under construction. The big mansion was packed from floor to ceiling with pay phones dating back to the 1950s.
Johnson citedSergio LeoneSpaghetti Westerns andShinichiro Watanabe'sCowboy Bebop (1998) as influences on his visualization of the film.[5][6] He used shoes as a design element for his characters and saw them as an "instant snapshot of the essence" of the characters.[7] He has also stated that many of the film's visual cues were taken from the neo-noirChinatown (1974) with its wide-open flat spaces.
The majority of the film'sspecial effects were cheaply and efficiently produced usingpractical andin-camera effects.[8] Early in the film, for example, de Ravin walks toward the camera out of a tunnel as a garbage bag floats downstream and engulfs the camera, transitioning 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 into a scene in which a garbage bag was simply pulled over Gordon-Levitt's head.[8]
Filming a car driving slowly 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.[8] Clever fades give the impression of time changes whilesmash 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. 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 agreen screen, but it was edited out of the film before its completion.[8]
The original cut of the film ran over two hours, 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 nudity felt wrong in the context of the film, and that he preferred to leave the degree of intimacy ambiguous, although he occasionally found himself second-guessing that decision.[9][10]
Thescore toBrick was composed by Johnson's cousin,Nathan Johnson, with additional support and music fromThe Cinematic Underground. The score harkens 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, andkitchen utensils, all recorded with one microphone on anApplePowerBook. Since Nathan Johnson was inEngland during most of the production process, the score was composed almost entirely over AppleiChat, with Rian playing clips of the movie for Nathan, who would then score them. The two met inNew York City to mix the soundtrack. Thesoundtrack CD of the movie was released on March 12, 2006, by Lakeshore Records. In addition to Johnson's score, it contains songs byThe Velvet Underground,Anton Karas and Kay Armen as well as the big band version of "Frankie and Johnny" performed byBunny Berigan and a full unedited performance of "The sun whose rays are all ablaze" byNora Zehetner. Johnson has confirmed that various elements in the film were influenced byTwin Peaks creatorDavid Lynch.[9]
TheRegion 1DVD release ofBrick was released on August 8, 2006, as part of theFocus Features Spotlight Series. Special features include: selection ofdeleted and extended scenes with introductions by Johnson; audition footage featuring Nora Zehetner and Noah Segan; and featureaudio commentary with Rian Johnson, Nora Zehetner, Noah Segan, producerRam Bergman, production designer Jodie Tillen, and costume designer Michele Posch.
TheRegion 2 DVD was released on September 18, 2006.
TheBlu-ray forBrick was released on January 7, 2020, byKino Lorber, which was supervised by Johnson and Yedlin.[11] It was previously scheduled to be released on May 7, 2019.[12]
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 $450,000. The film grossedUS$2.07 million in North America and a total of $3.9 million worldwide.[13]
Brick has an approval rating of 80% onRotten Tomatoes based on 143 reviews and an average score of 7.10/10. The consensus states: "This entertaining homage to noirs past has been slickly and compellingly updated to a contemporary high school setting."[14] and ranked #35 onEntertainment Weekly's list of the "50 Best High School Movies".[15] Based on 34 critic reviews,Metacritic gave it an average score of 72 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[16]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars, stating "[It works] in the sense that the classic Hollywood noirs worked: The story is never clear while it unfolds, but it provides a rich source of dialogue, behavior and incidents."[17] The film's only serious flaw, thought Ebert, was that the characters were not entirely believable and thus it was difficult to care about the outcome of events for the characters.Peter Travers ofRolling Stone also gave the film a positive review, explaining "A spoof would have been easy. Instead, Johnson plunges off the deep end, risking ridicule by shaping this spellbinder with grit and gravitas."[18]
Stephen Holden ofThe New York Times commented, "Mr. Haas and Mr. Gordon-Levitt at least succeed in evoking the outlines of their characters. But the film's ham-handed reliance on period argot not only wears thin; it keeps the characters, such as they are, at a chilly distance."[19]
Brick ranks 489th onEmpire magazine's 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time.[20]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Sundance Film Festival[21] | Special Jury Prize: Dramatic, for Originality of Vision | Brick | Won |
| Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic | Nominated | |||
| 2005 | Deauville Film Festival | Grand Special Prize | Won | |
| 2006 | Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Most Promising Director | Rian Johnson | Won |
| 2006 | Independent Spirit Awards[22] | John Cassavetes Award | Brick | Nominated |
| 2006 | San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards[23] | Best Screenplay – Original | Rian Johnson | Nominated |
| 2006 | Satellite Awards | Best Original Score | Nathan Johnson | Nominated |
| 2006 | Sitges Film Festival | Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation | Rian Johnson | Won |
| 2007 | Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards | Best Overlooked Film | Brick | Won |
| Best Screenplay – Original | Rian Johnson | Won | ||
| 2007 | Online Film Critics Society Awards | Best Breakthrough Filmmaker | Rian Johnson | Nominated |
| Empire Awards | Best Male Newcomer | Rian Johnson | Nominated |
