Brick (2005)
★★ — Brick (2005)
Brick was the feature debut of Rian Johnson, who would later go on to direct Looper (2012), The Last Jedi (2017), and Knives Out (2019), but at this point was an unknown quantity working on a budget of just $475,000, much of it raised independently over several years. Shot on location at San Clemente High School in California, the film transplants classic hardboiled noir (think Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler) into a contemporary American high school, a conceit Johnson had been developing since his student days. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, then still shaking off his Third Rock from the Sun television image, took the lead role as a favour to Johnson, a college friend. The film premiered at Sundance in 2005, winning a Special Jury Prize, which secured it a modest theatrical release through Focus Features.
Brick (2005) is an ambitious but ultimately muddled experiment. Rian Johnson’s debut attempts to transplant hardboiled noir into a modern high school setting, complete with trench coats, cryptic dialogue, and shadowy conspiracies. On paper, it’s clever and the cast (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss etc..) give it their all, delivering with admirable commitment, but the acting is bad... The film quickly wears thin. The dialogue, while intentionally archaic, becomes exhausting rather than evocative, so dense that it obscures emotion and motivation. The plot, already messy, feels unnecessarily convoluted, as if complexity were mistaken for depth. And despite its noir trappings, Brick lacks the moral ambiguity or emotional stakes that make the genre resonate. It’s all surface: moody lighting, slow walks down empty hallways, lingering shots of rain-slicked pavement, but little soul beneath. At nearly two hours, it drags where it should simmer. What could’ve been a sharp, inventive riff on teen alienation and detective fiction ends up feeling self-serious and hollow. An interesting idea, poorly executed. A film more admired for its ambition than enjoyed for its storytelling. Style over substance, with a script that confuses obscurity for intelligence.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2005 | Watched: 2026-02-27
Where to watch (UK)
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
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Where to watch (UK)
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from Rian Johnson: Knives Out (2019) · Looper (2012) · Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
More with Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Inception (2010) · Looper (2012)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
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