2006-08-27 - 3:08 p.m. I have yet to visit the galleries of the Skyscraper Museum, but their website has lots of cool interactive digitalia. Brick! If you haven't seen it yet--or if you saw it in a theater and the convoluted plot whizzed by you too fast--it's out on DVD now and well worth poring over a second or third time. It's the story of a high school gumshoe who sets out to find his ex-girlfriend's murderer, and untangle the rat's nest of drug-dealing shenanigans that led to her downfall, and while it's set almost entirely in a cheery-looking San Clemente high school, the characters talk in Raymond Chandler-esque noir-speak Brick has gotten many comparisons to Donnie Darko, but I'd also liken it to Me and You and Everyone We Know, and to the best of Wes Anderson and Hal Hartley, in that Rian Johnson has created his own universe, and his characters act in ways consistent with the laws of that universe. There is also, amidst the dead-seriousness, a goofy sense of humor that produces many laugh-out-loud moments that you can't really explain out of context. The care that Johnson put into every single shot and line of dialogue guarantees that this film will be analyzed and written about by film students for years to come. thoughts? (5 comments so far) previous - next blog archive contact