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

Brendan's hair, personality and distinctive walk is partially inspired by Spike Spiegel, a character from the anime "Cowboy Bebop" (1998), of whom director Rian Johnson is a fan.

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Goofs

In the Pins' kitchen Pin's mom opens the refrigerator, where the apple juice bottle has some juice missing. After she pours Brendon a glass, the apple juice bottle is on the bar full.

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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 V.I.P. (1998)

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Soundtracks

"I'm In The Middle Of A Riddle"
Written by Franz Winkler & Albert Goetz
Performed by Anton Karas & Kay Armen
Courtesy of Jasmine Records
Used by permission of EMI Robbins Catalog Inc.

User Reviews

Kids Playing Grown-ups, Talking Nonsense

This is a very irritating film. It's like Bugsy Malone without the songs. It all comes across as kids doing Film Noir for their school project - badly. It is an unengaging story about an unlikable girl who goes missing, and her miserable ex-boyfriend who tries to solve the big mystery. Yawn. The dialogue is perhaps the most annoying part of Brick. Clearly the writer has mistaken 'incomprehensible' for 'clever'. It's all gabbled nonsense like "Jimmy C got goosed by the bulls and now I'm half-galloned to Milwaukee. Find out where Eddie Cheerio hides his cake and then meet me behind the Flapjack shop at a quarter past lunch." Or something.

In truth the film is slightly better than a 1, but is just so irritating in how smart it thinks it is that it needs bringing down a peg or two.