Film Review of Brick and DVDs to watch out for tuesday

Next tuesday (or this tuesday), there will be some interesting new DVD releases and here are some of them. By the way, I tend to avoid mentioning the comercial releases which will flood the local blockbuster and rental stores. Simply, because it does please my fancy to recommend what is most often garbage (ahem..Scary Movie 4). Although, if there is an interesting comercial film being released, I will comment on it.

For horror fans, Silent Hill is coming out this tuesday, although I always have misgivings over videogame adaptations (I have recurring nightmares over Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter) and it seems that they making adaptations of anything. Dead or Alive is being turned into a film. For god's sake, awhile back, there was an videogame adaptation of pacman announced. How the hell is that even possible?

L'Enfant, the winner of the 2005 Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film festival. Definitely rent. I will. Actually, don't, so my chances of renting it will increase tenfold. Arguably, the most interesting release of this week.

Two disc collector's edition of Apocalypse Now. Finally, a DVD of the film which isn't Redux (which I hate).

A new Criterion collection release, Six Moral Tales by Eric Rohmer, which you most likely won't be able to afford because, as every one knows, the producers of the criterion collection are blood sucking leeches. Blood sucking leeches which manage to make me fork over excessive amounts of money on a regular basis. Damn them and their high quality products.

Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinematheque. Documentary about the founder of la cinemateque française.

Eternity and a Day. Oddly, another Palme D'or winner, this time for 1998. The film stars Bruno Ganz who was fantastic in the German film Downfall as Hitler. Another film, like L'Enfant, which I hope to rent, but its chances of arriving are very slim.

Review of Brick.

Last tuesday, I finally rented and saw this film. I had been waiting for it for an entire year after seeing its trailer. The film's odd premise and my liking of the film noir is what lured me to watch it. Rian Johnson's Brick is a film noir detective story set in a high school environment in which our anti-hero Brendan, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (yes, that actor from Third Rock from the Sun, of all people), seeks to find out the cause of his ex-girlfriend Emily's problems within the town's drug market which is run by a teenager named the Pin. He is helped by a high school student known as the Brain in this quest. Oddly, the film is not a parody of the film noir genre, but more a modern tribute to its style and content. Anyone who has watched enough film noir films either those of Bogart or Wilder (Double Indemnity) will be able to spot all the subtle (and not so subtle) asides and parallels to the genre. Even some of the film's camera shots parallel those seen in past film noir films. The films contains familiar elements such as the femme fatale. Oddly enough, the school's principal (V.P) substitutes for the police and holds Brendan on a leash. The quick and often intentionally exagerrated dialogue of film noir is preserved in the film and may annoy some, but I loved it. It may be cheesy at times, but it is damn entertaining and often hilarious, especially when the film takes itself seriously.

Now, as for the acting, although it may initially appear as if Gordon-Levitt lacks the ability to emote in certain of the film's scenes, he is clearly trying to mimic the dead-pan and cold personaliy of former film noir anti-heroes like those played by Humphrey Bogart. Thus, his acting style is in complete conformance with the film's goal. Everyone else in the cast plays their role solidly.

If there was one quasi-problem I had with the film, it was that, for a revisionist film noir which played with the genre's conventions, I wished it had subverted them more. Although, this minor criticism can not lower my estimation of the film which I have seen because any critic should never judge a film based on one's expectations. Too many critics review the film they wanted to see rather than the film they have just watched which is why you should most likely ignore my critical aside.

Although, back to my aside, I did wish for the film to subvert more the often misogynist undertones of 1940 and 1950s film noir hidden beneath the characterization of the femme fatale who was demonized for her active nature. While it is difficult to argue when this initially misogynist characterization became transformed into a convention devoid of its former attributes, I still desired the film to do more because it often plays right into the femme fatale convention. However, this is a film noir convention and it can not necessarily be avoided if one wishes to construct a tribute to film noirs. The film, however, appears to dissipate the overt misogynist tradition of some past film noirs (not all of them). In addition, the film has a subtle critique of masculine responsibility (and obliviousness) which counters most of the potential negative influences which could emerge from the strict adherence to the femme fatale convention. In the end, I really liked this film, but I don't know how if a viewer, unconnected to the genre's past, will appreciate it as much. Although, I could see some of the uninitiated really liking this odd and unique film.

Lastly, I will admit that the film is pure pulp entertainment, but that was some pretty good "pulp".

Go rent it and try it out. Then post your comments on the film.