Brick (2005)

Storyline
Brendan Frye a loner and an outcast at school receives a strange phone call from Emily Kostich his ex girlfriend whom he still loves asking for help and claiming that she was in trouble she later asks him to forget about it. But not long after Brendan finds Emily dead and is determined to find out who killed her and why. He infiltrates Emily's friends at the time of her death, a group of teenagers involved in drugs and dealing. Using the help of his nerd friend 'The Brain' Brendan gets into the inner circle of the friends lead by 'Pin' only then can he start to unravel the mystery surrounding Emily's death and find the person who killed her.

 Brick classed as a Neo Noir certainly has the influences of Film Noir with the protagonist being clear from the outset and the introduction of the 'red herring' femme fatal who dies very early on and the emerging second to replace her. All the characters seem to have some sort of dark past hidden away or a vendetta to perform. Although other characters that do not normally appear in the regular conventions of Film Noir, the 'best friend' character that Brick has in the form of 'the Brain'  character which Brendan enlists to help him as a 3rd party observer he also confides all the aspects of the case but never plays a physical role in it. The other main factor is that it is set in a High School so some of the other conventions have been twisted to fit this setting. But the main Film Noir elements are there, mirrors, low key lighting, extreme angles. The story is very fast moving with fast dialogue keeping the pace going and the audience hooked. The film also takes influences from other genres with the script being very quick witted and with younger/teen language involved but not too much that it become solely a teen film. As there are many twists in the storyline which can be hard to keep up with.


Trailer

The film had a very small budget and the entire film was shot in 20 days. But the cast was preparing and rehearsing 3 months prior to filming. There are many special effects within the film, the were done very simply and many were produced using practical and in-camera effects. For example scenes were filmed in reverse order to achieve the desired effect. This was used when the car speeds past Brandon whilst he is on the phone. They filmed the car going down the road in reverse and playing it the scene backwards in higher speed giving the illusion it is traveling a lot faster than it really is. The director also used extreme angles and interesting camera work which made the film very visual and interesting to watch which is even noticeable and stunning in the trailer (above).