brick

i think that many people who read this blog will like brick; it's a quirky movie that's kind of the o.c. meets the maltese falcon, noir with teens. the closest movie i can think to compare it to is rushmore, although only insofar as both are a chimera of two completely different genres. the gimmick in brick succeeds because it's not been overused (compared, for example, to the "non-linear narrative" trick, a conceit that's so last week), and because rian johnson's script gets the tone exactly right. it's the kind of script i would like to come up with, if i had talent.

the movie opens on the corpse of emilie de ravin (claire, from lost, if anyone cares), jumps back in time to a couple of days before her murder, and then follows hard-boiled teenage detective brendan as he chases down the truth. the film is more a whydunnit than a whodunnit -- you find out long before the end who her killer is, but this isn't classic detective fiction, and the real payoff comes in the very last scene.

joseph gordon levitt plays the lead. after his 16-million-year stint on 3rd rock from the sun, i figured he was about due to fade quietly into obscurity, but between mysterious skin and this film it looks like he's carving out a pretty good niche for himself (sullen adolescent in arthouse movies no one will ever see). nora zehetner from heroes is in it, with the same two expressions she has in heroes (well, had). the rest are sort of unknowns, which is fine, because teen movies are like that, and you're so busy marvelling at the cleverness of the story that you don't even have time to notice.