Brick
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Our friends over at Blogcritics.org take the DVD Brick for a spin. To call this review a rave is an understatement. What if John Hughes met Blue Velvet? Add in a dash of Humphrey Bogart and you have Brick, a hard-boiled high-school mystery. Tell me if they catch. Brick?
And while I could talk about the fantastic style or bright future of the young director, I cannot overlook the amazing performances that bring this cold world to life. Joseph Gordon Levitt, whom you may only remember from Mysterious Skin or even more notably from the TV show Third Rock from the Sun, delivers the performance of a lifetime as our downtrodden hero Brendan. It is very easy to see the ferocious rage and emotion that lies beneath Brendan’s snide, collected persona. In combination with that, relative newcomer Nora Zehetner plays Laura, the girl whose devious motive often gets lost in her ability to manipulate the situation around her. Zehetner’s performance is scary good, making me glad that I have never run across such an intelligent tramp as Laura. In combination with Levitt, her performance breathes an amazing amount of life into this already rich story, making for what I will once again proclaim as my “favorite film of the year, hands down!”
So for these reasons, as you could expect, I was elated to finally be able to own this one on DVD. As it was the first film of the year to really knock my pants off, it was my most anticipated DVD purchase. The best part is that the DVD comes away adding a great deal to my enjoyment of the film; there is a very insightful and well articulated commentary with director Rian Johnson. It also includes some deleted scenes that were only cut from the movie to keep it from moving too slowly. And while I can see why they were cut out, I would not have complained if they were left in the film. And furthermore I was glad to see that they made the DVD.
On visual and audible quality, this film works so inexplicably well. The score has an eerie tone, the cinematography is meticulous and the film exudes the dark cynical nature of classic noir. It is as if Johnson is reinventing the genre for a completely new generation, and that is why there is no reason why you should not go out and buy Brick on DVD. This is a film that deserves an audience and even more importantly does not disappoint one bit.
Source: Blogcritics.org
Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Over 20 minutes of deleted and extended scenes
“The Inside Track: Casting the Roles” featurette
Commentary by cast and filmmakers
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