Brick

A very unusual, hard-edged indie that brings film noir trappings to the teen movie, the Sundance award winning Brick is a brilliant showcase for former 3rd Rock from the Sun star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan, a high school loner intent on discovering the truth behind the sudden death of his ex-girlfriend. Negotiating the variegated social strata of his California campus, the mild-mannered but irreverent Brendan conducts an investigation that brings him into contact with students he generally avoids, including the class's resident rich bitch (Nora Zehetner) and principal drama queen (Meagan Good) on a quest that ultimately leads to a young mini-druglord known as 'The Pin' (Lukas Haas in an eccentric but effective performance). Writer-director Rian Johnson obviously admires complicated thrillers such as The Usual Suspects, to which Brick bears some thematic and stylistic resemblance, but he also gives us characters that, despite their teen movie milieu, have exact corollaries in noir movies (i.e., the cynical tough detective, the femme fatale, the stone-cold killer), and what's more, Johnson has staged and shot the film's key sequences in such a way as to suggest those earlier works, fashioning a unique teen thriller unlike any you've seen before. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary (by writer-director Rian Johnston, costars Noah Segan and Nora Zehetner, producer Ram Bergman, production designer Jodie Tillen, and costume designer Michele Posch), 23 minutes of deleted/extended scenes with an intro by director Johnston, 'The Inside Track: Casting the Roles of Laura and Dode' audition tapes featuring Zehetner and Segan, and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for an excellent film.] (E. Hulse) [Blu-ray Review—Dec. 31, 2019—Kino Lorber, 110 min., R, Blu-ray: $29.95—Making its Blu-ray debut, 2005’s Brick features a fine transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include audio commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson, costars Nora Zehetner and Noah Segan, producer Ram Bergman, production designer Jodie Tillen, and costume designer Michele Posch, as well as deleted and extended scenes with an intro by Johnson (23 min.), and 'The Inside Track' casting segment (3 min.). Bottom line: this indie gem sparkles on Blu-ray.]