F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

If you thought high schools are for musicals and vampires, and you like your high school that way, then please move to the next post. Because Rian Johnson’s Brick is nothing like that. The header of the post is actually a dialogue from the film. And like that line, in the film they talk cool and they act cool, without going Slo-Mo. And sometimes, its even difficult to follow what the characters are saying.

It starts with a dead body and a man blankly staring at the body. The text appears on screen – Two Days Previous. The story rewinds, telling us what, how and why it happened, and comes back to the present. Add detectives, femme fatale, dons and drugs – the perfect  noir combo. Though its a minimalistic setting but the large and open spaces adds a superb eerie feel to the film, adding that perfect mood for this detective drama.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in almost every frame of the film and its easy to spot why he climbed the stairs so fastly with 500 Days of Summer & Inception.

According to IMDB.com, here is the synopsis of the film…

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

And if directorial debuts don’t have interesting tales behind the making, then half the fun is gone. So,  as it happens, nobody was willing to put money in this film. Rian got it from family and friends, shot it in just 20 days in his hometown and the special effects were done in-camera. And  when Coen Brothers are the inspiration for the filmmaker, one thing is for sure – cool quotient is added in dollops. And we aren’t complaining!

Watch it for its perfect mood setting with minimalistic approach and for a noirish story well told. The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and bagged the Special Jury Prize. Focus Features picked it during the fest and gave it a theatrical release.