Brick

BRICK by Rian Johnson, is pish.
It's a classic old school film noir homage, full of mumbled dialogue and overly stylised unrealistic acting, played out against a California high school backdrop, and seemingly gushed over by critics around the world. It won Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at Sundance, which is strange, as it rips off Twin Peaks, Midnight Cowboy and shed loads of old hard boiled detective films along the way. Sorry, I meant to say it plays homage to other films. Anyhoo, that kid from 3rd Rock mumbles his way through the film, spouting enigmatic utterances and generally affecting a High Plains Drifter stylee level of acting. Nothing surprises him, not even finding his dead ex lying in a storm tunnel. Nothing hurts him. He's too cool for school for that. Gets kicked in & stabbed occasionally, coughs a bit, sorted.

The king pin baddie is played by that kid that pushed the granny around in Mars Attacks, and he's obviously a fan of Bobby de Niro eating the eggs in Angel Heart - all sitting around in grande clothes in big chairs, waiving canes around, and many other clear indications of devilness.

Anyway, it's guff. Far too clever for its own good, with an inaudible soundtrack, acting of the highest and dullest method calibre, and only occasionally interesting. Or maybe the cinema was too hot. Whatever. The Brick Bradford thing looks pretty good though, eh?