2021-07-16 09:01
Finished rewatching Rian Johnson's Brick this morning. I had a very positive remembrance of it, and am happy to say that held for a rewatch after many years. Johnson made a very effective neo-noir drawing heavily on classic film noir tropes but bringing in elements of the high school drama. It feels a lot closer to the noir I like from the 40's than a lot of the other neo-noirs I've been watching. One of my favorite aspects of it is how Johnson uses a mix of old noir slang mixed with modern slang and probably a bunch of neologisms to give the dialogue a sense of theatricality and unreality. It's not "realistic" in the sense of "this is how teens in the early 2000s talk", but that fits the genre trappings of the plot. There's also a dry element of humor peppered throughout. I could see a lot of people being annoyed and unconvinced by how contrived it all seems, but I really like that he didn't just made a high school crime drama in conventionally realist mode.