Popular reviews

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  Review by Ethan ❄️ 1

  And, in true noir fashion, I had no idea what was happening after 15 minutes.

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 6

  Once you get past the cute screenplay tics of its kiddie-noir gimmick this is just a total blast and still one of the most ambitious, cheap indie genre debuts of recent memory. All of its budgetary limitations only contribute even further to its charm and how impressive it is that Johnson never misses an opportunity to shoot a scene as stylishly and kinetically as possible.

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe 8

  sweet bean crackers whatta hot little talkie

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  Review by amaya ★★★ 3

  i have a very rare brain disease that makes it impossible for me to understand neo-noir movies but i DID appreciate the direction and i DID laugh at joseph gordon-levitt getting knocked out approximately 20 times

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  Review by Hunter ᴴᴰ ★★★★ 6

  If Brick was made today, there would definitely be a character who vaped.

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  Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 9

  Low Budget Cinema

  It's really quite amazing what Rian Johnson can do with an incredibly limited budget. Brick is nothing if not creative—it may utilize genre conventions, but it does so in a unique way. As a lover of inventive cinematography the biggest standout for me was the framing: everything is shot from an extremely low angle, and many characters are defined as much by their shoes as anything else (and speaking of signature imagery, there's a pervasive fear of garbage bags running through the film that definitely gave me chills once or twice). The editing is also phenomenal, constantly pushing the envelope and using every trick in the book to keep you on your toes. The dialogue's snappy imitation-noir…

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  Review by SilentDawn ★★★★ 4

  78

  What Brick lacks in a homage for Film-Noir is a tangible reverence for the melancholy and patterns of the genre's language. The spirited, flowery conversations between High School students is funny at first, but then deeply sad - a world with hardly any adults, with grown-up children on the edge of a ravine of depression and trauma. If anything, Rian Johnson mines inspiration from the childhood narratives of Stephen King to incorporate a story of withered adolescents having to fight against the sins of the past. You can feel the weight and the pain of an unforgiving world, and the haunting remembrance of someone now lost. With an incredible cast, the writing rises to the task and the result is a capable piece of smooth cinema. Cold to the touch.

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  Review by gaia ★★½ 3

  okay i’m gonna be honest i have no idea what just happened but this is a petition to let joseph gordon-levitt step on me with those awful rimless glasses

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  Review by Tasha Robinson ★★★★★ 4

  Still one of my all-time favorite films, just a complete joy to watch. 1940s noir meets modern high-school, with idiosyncratic dialogue, updated character archetypes, and everyone taking the whole affair fantastically seriously. Startlingly funny while still being straight-faced grim. And such a great Joseph Gordon-Levitt performance.

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  Review by Joe ★★★★½ 6

  If there are two types of movies that have been done to death, it's noir pastiche and high school movies. But, in one of the great bits of movie alchemy, Rian Johnson takes these two subgenres and smashes them up with the reckless abandon of someone who doesn't seem to care if anyone likes it or not, even though we all know that's impossible.

  Johnson and the cast are all smart enough to know that a conceit like this will work best if it's played completely straight, and with the exception of one (arguably 2) scene(s), it is. And amusement at the idea of high school students living out a Dashiell Hammett nightmare eventually gives way to genuine and shattering…

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  Review by Houston Coley ★★★★ 8

  It’s a given at this point, but this is such a mind-bogglingly great example of creativity maximized through limitations. So many clever ways of working around the low budget and integrating the parameters into the script. Even when it feels like a student film - which, it does, a good amount - that vibe ultimately fuels the tone and aesthetic of the story. And unlike most student films, it’s also pretty self-aware and tongue-in-cheek, parodying a genre while also wholeheartedly embracing its iconography and tropes. Can you imagine how amazing it would be if Rian Johnson and Steve Yedlin worked on a Star Wars movie? One can only dream tbh

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  Review by Matt The Snapper ★★★★ 4

  A great game to play is to see how many times Joesph Gordon Levitt gets sucker punched in this movie.