Brick hails from filmmaker Rian Johnson, whose directorial debut allowed him to find later success with his Knives Out franchise, many of the best episodes of Breaking Bad (including Season 5’s “Ozymandias”), the divisively brilliant science fiction sequel Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and the brilliant sci-fi neo-noir film Looper. In his first collaboration with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Johnson explored the story of a high school loner who is searching for the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. It’s a relatively low-key movie in comparison to the type of blockbusters that Johnson would come to emulate, but contains no less of his brilliance.
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It’s more than apparent at this point that Johnson is one of the best storytellers of this generation, and fans of his work have been eagerly awaiting the next chapters in the Knives Out series after Glass Onion became a surprise box office hit, despite the fact that it was simultaneously available in theaters. The deals are in place for Johnson to begin working on a third chapter in the series, which has proven to be a standalone success that not even the ridiculous detractors from his work on The Last Jedi can deny. While Johnson’s best work may be ahead of him as he continues to add new films and television projects to his resume, he has never topped the pure brilliance of Brick.

The Modernized Neo-Noir Style
Warner Bros.

Brick is an homage to, but not a parody of, the neo-noir subgenre of crime movies. Gordon-Levitt stars as Brendan, a loner who receives a mysterious phone call from his ex-girlfriend Emily Kostich (played heartbreakingly by future Lost star Emilie de Ravin). This is a set-up that many noir fans may be familiar with, as it’s often that hard-boiled detectives will receive a frantic phone call that initially introduces them to the mystery. The difference here is that Brendan isn’t a detective pursuing a big city, but rather a high schooler who has an unusual talent for solving problems. Instead of leveraging his skills to a local police station like a detective might if Brick was a more classical neo-noir, Brendan’s communications are with his school’s Assistant V.P. Trueman (Richard Roundtree).

It’s interesting that Johnson plays these elements straight; the audience is able to get invested in the story, and the character’s youthfulness doesn’t detract from what becomes a compelling mystery. It’s interesting to see how Johnson fits in various analogies to different elements of the genre, as each of the high school’s social clubs represents the groups of city societies that exist within neo-noir films. Instead of a femme fatale that belongs to an illustrious nightclub, Brendan must interrogate the mysterious “theater girl” Laura Dannon (Nora Zehetner).

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A mysterious drug baron called “The Pin” (Lukas Haas) may be a teenager who only sells drugs to high school students, but he clearly represents the more powerful gangsters that would be seen in a neo-noir film; similarly, the Pin’s top enforcer “Tug” (Noah Fleiss) might represent a more powerful mafia man. The use of the high school setting and coming-of-age elements of the film make it a great way to bridge the gaps between generations. Younger movie fans that enjoy Gordon-Levitt’s high school films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Mysterious Skin might be interested in more classical cinema, as Brick certainly pays homage to Humphrey Bogart classics such as The Maltese Falcon, Dark Passage, In A Lonely Place, The Harder They Fall, and Key Largo among others.

Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Best Performance
Focus Features

It’s no surprise that after Brick, Gordon-Levitt and Johnson continued to work together. While Looper gave them both the chance to explore a more complex side of an assassin, and Gordon-Levitt has made very funny cameos in The Brothers Bloom, The Last Jedi, and Poker Face, Brick remains the best work that Gordon-Levitt has ever done as an actor. That’s no faint praise! Even outside of his work with Johnson, Gordon-Levitt has been praised for his work in Christopher Nolan’s action films Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, the dramatic comedies 500 Days of Summer and 50/50, and even his directorial debut Don Jon.

Brendan is a tragic character; perhaps he loved Emily once, but now she’s just become another lost case that he can note in his career. Brendan is forced to hear about Emily’s various suitors, partners, and abusers, and Gordon-Levitt does a great job at showing how Brendan tries to mask his emotions. It’s clear that he’s trying to retain his seriousness, but his staunch reaction to the news about her also reflects his heartbreak.

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The heartbreaking news that he receives from Laura in the film’s concluding moment are the type of subtle acting moments that most actors of Gordon-Levitt’s comparative youth at the time wouldn’t have been able to pull off; he has to show an almost bemused reaction to the inevitably that Emily was pregnant with his child, and that perhaps he should have been more emotional the entire time.

Great Practical Filmmaking
Focus Features

With a level of practical filmmaking skills that Johnson’s contemporaries like Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith would certainly respect, Brick proves that mystery movies just need great dialogue to work. Johnson’s screenplay is complex and spends a meticulous amount of time exploring the various dynamics between all of the different players; it’s almost overwhelming on an initial viewing, but multiple rewatches make the story more understandable.

Even within the complex narrative of the mystery, there are rare moments of humor and emotion. A scene between the Pin and Brendan as they reflect on the poetry of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings as they walk across a beach is simply beautiful. The film also features an early sign of Johnson’s ability to create great action, as the standoff between Brendan and the Pin is just as exciting as the iconic duel between Rey and Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi.