Brick (2005)
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A detective story. Character: Emily KostichDirector: Rian Johnson Writer: Rian Johnson Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Matt O’Leary, Noah Fleiss Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery MPAA: Rated R for violent and drug content Runtime: 109 min Filming Locations: California, USA Distributors: Focus Features |
| Synopsis |
| Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a student of an unnamed California high school, stares silently at the body of ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin) lying in a storm drain. Days earlier, Brendan, in the know of the intricacies of the “upper crust” of drug-addicted socialites but choosing to live outside them, receives a terrified phone call from Emily, who tearfully tells him that she “didn’t know that the brick was bad” and that “the Pin’s on it now,” imploring him to help her. Brendan manages to find her, only to face her plea for him to leave her alone. After her death, Brendan takes it upon himself to solve her murder, enlisting the aid of fellow loner The Brain (Matt O’Leary) to track information, while feigning to be an inside man for his assistant vice-principal (Richard Roundtree). His intrusion into the tightly knit circle of high school cliques brings him into the lives of several people, including popular Laura (Nora Zehetner), prolifically violent Tug (Noah Fleiss), stoner Dode (Noah Segan), seductive play actress Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian J. White), and drug baron The Pin (as in kingpin) (Lukas Haas). All are pivotal in his pursuit of Emily’s fate. |
| Trivia |
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· According to the review in “The New Yorker”, this film was edited on a home computer. · 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. · The horn signal Brendan instructs Laura to give him (long, short, long, short) is the same as the doorbell signal Sam Spade tells Brigid O’Shaughnessy he’ll use in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Brendan’s earlier line to Laura, “Now you are dangerous,” is taken from the film as well. · As Brendan enters the Halloween in January party, a girl with long hair passes by with a cooler on wheels. This is the main character from the movie “May”, which director Rian Johnson edited. · The film was shot in Rian Johnson’s home town, and the high school featured is the one he attended himself. · The newspaper that shows “Local Girl Missing” includes an article to the left that gives a plot summary for the pilot episode of Pamela Anderson’s “V.I.P.” (1998). · To cheaply create the effect of something coming out of the tunnel and jumping up in the observer’s face, the dream sequence in which Brendan sees Emily coming out of the tunnel is shot in reverse. You can see this because the water appears to be flowing out of the tunnel, while in all the other shots, it’s flowing in. · Rian Johnson wrote the original screenplay in 1997. It took him six years in order to fund the project. · The caped costume that Lukas Haas wears through the movie is based upon the same outfit that Jonathan Frid wore in the cult 60′s TV classic “Dark Shadows” (1966). · Rian Johnson cited Spaghetti Westerns and Cowboy Bebop as influences on his visualization of the movie. · The music score was composed by Rian Johnson’s cousin, Nathan Johnson, with additional support and music from The Cinematic Underground. The score hearkens back to the style, feel and overall texture of noir films. It features traditional instruments such as the piano, trumpet and violin, and also contains unique and invented instruments such as the wine-o-phone, metallophone, tack pianos, filing cabinets, and kitchen utensils, all recorded with one microphone on a beat-up Apple PowerBook. Since Nathan Johnson was in England during most of the production process, the score was composed almost entirely over Apple iChat, with Rian Johnson playing clips of the movie to Nathan Johnson, who would then score them. The two later met in New York to mix the soundtrack. · The film makers had filmed a version of the film scene with the playing field all muddy and damaged. When they came back to film more of the scene they discovered that the school had refurbished the field and it was now perfect and bright green. That’s why most of the shots in the scene are angled upwards to hide the field from view. · The lack of classroom scenes in this high school film was much commented after the movie’s release. While there originally was a scene set in Brendan’s classroom, Rian Johnson had to re-write it to avoid a location change. This scene was the one where Brendan goes trough the notebook he takes from Emily when they meet; in the original script, this happened while a teacher explains something in the background. |
| Film Quotes |
| Emily: Brendan, I know you’re mad at these people because you think I went away from you and went to them but, you need to start seeing it as my decision. Stop getting angry because where I want to be at, is different from where you want to be at. Brendan Frye: Who fed you that line, Em? Emily: Stop picking on Dode. He’s a good guy. Brendan Frye: The pie house rat? Emily: He’s a good friend. Brendan Frye: So, what am I? Emily: Yeah, I mean what are you? Just sitting back here, hating everyone? Who are you to judge anyone? God, I really loved you a lot. I couldn’t stand it. I had to get with people. I couldn’t have a life with you anymore. Emily: Brendan. Emily: [over the phone] I screwed up real bad, you know. Brendan Frye: You gotta come back to me, Em. Emily: Let me go. |
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