| Brick |
[Sep. 10th, 2006|02:28 am]
Athena2824
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| [ | She's so: |
| | comfy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Soon-My Bloody Valentine-Loveless | ] |
I know. I've already posted three times today and this makes the fourth. But today my life changed a la "Survive Style 5+" with a little independent movie some of you may know called "BRICK".
 
Yes, I heard it was good. I knew its gimmick. I always thought it was good and wanted to see it but never did.
And now I have. And tomorrow, I will own it.
It is all of the film noir I have loved so much put into the high-school film I've loved so much. It's everything... well, that I love. Great acting, beautiful scenery, self-concious dialogue, self-concious genre... the mindbending twists of two genres coming together, or more like one engulfing the other like paper covers rock. Joseph Gordon-Levitt heaves a showstopping performance as Brendan, tossing every line of 1940's dialogue like it could really truly happen. He shows Brendan's weaknesses like the blood eeks out of his bruises: drip by drip, a sudden flow with a bad hit, and then (bad makeup continuity, though) disappearing, but only through appearances. He still hemorrhages on the inside, figuratively and literally. Everyone else delivers successfully with the difficult script as well, but only Gordon-Levitt hits the home run, and it's deep.
The costumes, shots (LONG AND WIDE the way I LIKE IT!), music, figurative scenes (black tarp, later revealed as garbage bagging, flows over Brendan's visions and enter his real world), the flip of dialogue (change "boss" to "teacher" and "safe" to "locker" and "7:30AM" to "First Period" and "home" to "homeroom") that suddenly pits you among the wits of an elite crime drama, everything is perfect, exhilarating, exciting and emotional. Take a scathing scene between Brendan and the Vice Principal, as they act out the noir moment when the cop get's stripped of his badge, and pay attention to its self-concious glory as a high-school student backlashes at the V.P. with such fire that you can only dream of someone being that fast. I love that it even went as far, at the end, as having a catch of Brendan (the tough cop) and Laura (the femme fatale) as she's crying to him, placed right under the crook of his chin -- the exact pose that every femme fatale hits in a Noir. A total blast. Unreal by all accounts, I can only wish high school was this exciting.
I sat with my jaw on the floor, the technical prowess and cinematic creativity just boring itself into my brain.
I really never expected anything like this.
And I am now SEVERELY IN LOVE with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Oops. I seem to have accidentally deleted my old post. I don't think I really said anything anyways, right? Something about false hope in time management...
-Leetal |
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contemplative