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Brick: A detective story - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Rian Johnson

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Brick, the dynamic début feature from writer/director Rian Johnson, won the Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision. Brick, while taking its cues and its verbal style from the novels of Dashiell Hammett, also honours the rich cinematic tradition of the hard-boiled noir mystery, here wittily and bracingly immersed in fresh territory - a modern-day Southern California neighbourhood and high school. There, student Brendan Frye's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) piercing intelligence spares no one. Brendan is not afraid to back up his words with actions and knows all the angles; yet he prefers to stay an outsider and does - until the day that his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin), reaches out to him unexpectedly and then vanishes. Brendan's feelings for her still run deep; so much so, that he becomes consumed with finding his troubled inamorata.

To find her, Brendan enlists the aid of his only true peer, The Brain (Matt O'Leary), while keeping the assistant vice principal (Richard Roundtree) only occasionally informed of what quickly becomes a dangerous investigation. Brendan's single-minded unearthing of students' secrets thrusts him headlong into the colliding social orbits of rich-girl sophisticate Laura (Nora Zehetner), intimidating Tugger (Noah Fleiss), substance-abusing Dode (Noah Segan), seductive Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian White) and - most ominously - non-student The Pin (Lukas Haas). It is only by gaining acceptance into The Pin's closely guarded inner circle of crime and punishment that Brendan will be able to uncover hard truths about himself, Emily and the suspects that he is getting closer to.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film school crime murder teen mystery detective noir California girlfriend social clique

Persons of interest

Joseph Gordon-Levitt .... Brendan Frye
Lukas Haas .... The Pin
Nora Zehetner .... Laura Dannon
Noah Segan .... Dode
Noah Fleiss .... Tugger
Emilie de Ravin .... Emily
Meagan Good .... Kara
Lucas Babin .... Big Stoner
Jonathan Cauff .... Biff
McJoel Hamilton .... The Pin's Driver
Cody Lightning .... Lug
Matt O'Leary .... The Brain
Richard Roundtree .... Assistant VP Gary Trueman
Brian J White .... Brad
Rian Johnson .... Screenwriter
Rian Johnson .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Brick: A detective story official movie site
Brick: A detective story film production notes
Brick: A detective story QuickTime movie trailers

Awards and film festivals:

British Independent Film Awards 2006: Nominated: Best Foreign Independent Film
Deauville Film Festival 2005: Nominated: Grand Special Prize (Rian Johnson)
Independent Spirit Awards 2006: Nominated: John Cassavetes award, Producers Award (Ram Bergman)
Sundance Film Festival 2005: Won: Special Jury Prize: Dramatic (Rian Johnson for originality of vision); Nominated: Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic (Rian Johnson)
Sydney Film Festival 2006: Hot spot

See also The chumscrubber
Studios and distributors:

Rialto Entertainment

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Oh, that's cool. Brick is a great way to introduce the film noir genre to unsuspecting students. On top of that, Joseph Gordon-Levitt comes across like the love child of Johnny Depp and Jake Gyllenhaal: sweet, sexy, intense. It's all good fun, especially the hitting and the shooting.