Brick (2005)

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

Director:

Rian Johnson

Writer:

Rian Johnson

Stars:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Emilie de Ravin

10 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	...	Brendan
Nora Zehetner	...	Laura
Lukas Haas	...	The Pin
Noah Fleiss	...	Tugger
Matt O'Leary	...	The Brain
Emilie de Ravin	...	Emily (as Emilie De Ravin)
Noah Segan	...	Dode
Richard Roundtree	...	Assistant V.P. Trueman
Meagan Good	...	Kara
Brian White	...	Brad Bramish
Jonathan Cauff	...	Biff
Reedy Gibbs	...	Pin's Mom
Lucas Babin	...	Big Stoner
Tracy Wilcoxen	...	Straggler
Ari Welkom	...	Tangles (as Ari Velkom)

Storyline

The lonely teenager Brendan finds his former girlfriend Emily dead in the entrance of a tunnel of sewage and recalls her phone call two days ago, when she said to him that she was in trouble. Brendan, who still loved Emily, met bad elements of his high-school trying to contact her, and when he succeeded, she told him that she was OK. He hides her body in the tunnel and decides to investigate the meaning and connection of four words, including "brick" and "pin", that Emily told him to find who killed her. Using the support of his nerd friend Brain, he successively meets the small time drug dealers Kara, Dode, Brad Bramish, Laura and Tugger, to reach the teenager powerful drug dealer The Pin. Slowly, Brendan unravels the motives why Emily was killed and plots a revenge.

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Plot Keywords:

high school | drug dealer | tunnel | drugs | detective | 

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Taglines:

A detective story.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violent and drug content

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 April 2006 (Canada)

Also Known As:

A Ponta de um Crime

Filming Locations:

San Clemente, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$475,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$31,411 (New Zealand) (13 October 2006)

Gross:

$99,056 (New Zealand) (13 October 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bergman Lustig Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In his meeting with Trueman, Brendan refers to a teacher "Kasprzyk" as being "tough but fair". Mrs. Kasprzyk was an actual teacher of English (including Advanced Placement English) who was largely known as being tough but fair at San Clemente High School, the school where the movie was shot.

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Goofs

When Brendan meets Dode on the football field, he falls down and his jacket gets quite muddy along the right arm and right side. The next scene is Brendan going to the tunnel at 4:00 p.m. for the meeting, and the jacket is perfectly clean.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[Brendan answers the pay phone]
Emily: Brendan.
Brendan Frye: Emily.
Emily: Yeah-h... How's things?
Brendan Frye: Status quo.

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Connections

References The Maltese Falcon (1941)

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Soundtracks

"Sister Ray"
Written by Lou Reed, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, & Sterling Morrison (as Sterling Morrision)
Performed by The Velvet Underground (as Velvet Underground)
Courtesy of Universal Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Bugsy Malone goes to high school

'Brick' is a film noir murder mystery featuring contemporary high school students who talk and behave like 1940's-style gangsters.

I hastily bought a ticket to 'Brick' at the Sundance Film Festival, knowing nothing about it but what was written in the Sundance catalog. I almost didn't go to the 9:15am screening but I am so glad I did. 'Brick' was by far the best of the eight films I'd seen up until then. It's one of those rare movies that keeps me grinning throughout, delighted by every turn of the grim plot.

The slang is thick but contextual. Watch closely for little camera tricks like a clock that reads 5:45 until it comes into focus and suddenly reads 8:30.