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Tim Cribb

Brick

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt,  Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss

Director: Rian Johnson

The film: Brendan Frye's ex-girlfriend lies face down in a storm drain. Someone killed her. He wants to know who, and why. His voice-over narrative links past and present in a detective story by first-time director Rian Johnson in the film noir/Dashiell Hammet style.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is cast as the outsider seeking justice and Nora  Zehetner his cigarette-smoking femme fatale Laura. The setting is southern California, on the wrong side of the line that  demarcates Orange County and where life doesn't come sugar-coated.

At the centre of everything is junior drug lord The Pin, played by Lukas Haas,  whose menacing screen presence towers over the generally lacklustre roles he has been given since the  wide-eyed Amish boy in Witness. Haas, with  only a spare dialogue to work from, delivers  a remarkably frightening performance.

Gordon-Levitt (below), last seen playing a prostitute in Greg Araki's disturbing Mysterious Skin, has come a long way too since his role as the angelic son of Demi Moore in The Juror and his growing up years as Tommy on the sitcom Third Rock From the Sun.

Brick is a solid addition to Gordon-Levitt's growing reputation as one of the finest actors of his generation.

Johnson sets this sharp-edged murder mystery in a distinctly desolate contemporary American high school - no happy 90210 gaggles here - and he peppers his screenplay with a slang that lends a nice touch of credibility without hindering the dialogue.

The actors are careful not to overplay their roles - film noir is easy to parody, fiendishly hard to emulate. Brick had a short run on the big screen, perhaps not helped by its 'R' for violent and drug content.

It was largely promoted through word of mouth, an elaborate website, and a CD of Nathan Johnson's music, which makes it seem like 5am even under the bluest of skies.

The extras: It's the standard package of commentary track, 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, and a featurette The Inside Track: Casting the Roles, interesting for having  Zehetner's test. She's also on the commentary track, which  Johnson uses to talk about how he came to make his film and the six years it took to achieve. Interesting for an insight into what's driving today's young filmmakers and actors.

The verdict: A fine whodunit that unfolds almost seamlessly to show the world America has made for itself and can only hope for the best, proving yet again that the less money involved in a film the more interesting the story, the more alive the acting, and the more vibrant the directing.



Brick