Brick- Veronica Mars goes Indie aka Not Just Another In The Wall

After writing about a movie that I hated, now here's one that I have nothing but love for: Brick. It's independent in the truest sense of the word. It was so strange and weird idea (detectives and high school? Who knew?), that no one touched it. Well, they would, but Rian Johnson, the writer-director, would have to change a great deal of it. So he went "fuck you" (politely of course) and secured funding through friends, family, and friends of the family until he got the bare amount needed to make the film. Then it went to Sundance in 2005, got nominated and won a Special Jury Prize. It eventually got picked up by Focus and was released in limited in April 2006. Of course it was released in limited theaters because even though it had a ton of critical acclaim, how the hell are you going to market the damn thing? I mean, when I see "Detective in High School," I know I'm gonna go, "Fuck yeah man," but then you got these people (old people. At least, in my mind.) going, "what in garsh darn tarnation is that language they be speaking, Mort?" (See?). But it found me in DVD, and what a glorious day that was. I had an awesome job back then. Sitting on my ass in front of a computer, looking up Robot Chicken videos for 7.50 an hour. It was 8 hour days with 6 hours of doing that and 2 hours of actual work. So, on my lunch break, I head out to the nearest Blockbuster to rent it. Replacing "So, I threw the Senate at him" with "Throwing him to the bulls" for about 2 hours, I was immersed in this high school world that felt nothing like my own, yet in tone felt oddly similar. Because, when in high school, you feel like everything is life or death, and in Brick, every goddamn thing is life or death. Oh yeah, fuck! I forgot to tell the plot of story. Well, without giving much detail (I won't spoil anything past the trailer. I have way too much respect for this film to do that), Brick is about Brendan (Joseph Gordon Levitt, the dude from 3rd Rock and 10 Things I Hate About You, an underrated teen comedy) who finds his ex-girlfriend (Emily de Ravin, the pregnant girl on Lost) dead in a tunnel, and tries to find out who and why.
Now, Veronica Mars basically the same in the small screen (and maybe the big screen?) as Brendan does in this. I think the difference is that Veronica Mars is more Phillip Marlowe while Brendan leans more into Sam Spade. Both are Bogart, but there's a few subtle differences. Marlowe prefers to stand back from a distance to learn what's happened. Spade gets right into the middle of things to find out the real deal. Marlowe also has the mouth, not to say that Spade doesn't, but he prefers to use action. If I'm not making much sense, I'm probably talking out of my ass. I'm not really sure right now.
But back to Brick. Just so much good. The kids talk straight out of a Dashiell Hammet book, which is what Johnson wanted to do. He wanted to capture the spirit of his books. If I had to describe Brick in one sentence it'd be this: Miller's Crossing meets David Lynch but shot like a Spaghetti Western. This is one of my favorites. It may not be yours, but this flick hit me at the right place at the right time.

But, fair warning, if and when you see Brick, put on the subtitles the first time. The sound production crew did what they could, but it's still hard to hear the dialogue the first time around. Afterwards, you get the hang of listening to them, so it's not necessary on multiple viewings.