Brick

Brick is what's known as a 'Neo Noir'. A Neo Noir is "a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently use elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in film noir of the 1940s and 1950s." (Google Definition).

                                                  

 Brick is quite a hard film to watch as you have to be paying all of your attention to the film so that you don't miss anything because if you do, then you won't know what's happening. As Brick is a Neo Noir, it does not contain the usual plot of a Film Noir, it has a different plot... However, the same kind of characters are used. For example Laura is the classic Femme Fatale, a seductive woman who uses the main character (Brendan). IMBD says:  "teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend."

Brick is quite an unusual noir as it's actually set in a high school with almost all of the characters being students in high school. This makes the plot for Brick seem so much more twisted as it's not normal for teenage students to be getting involved with Crime Lords and murder. It's a very interesting and successful take on a noir that worked wonderfully and was loved by many viewers.

CHARACTERS

Brendan Frye is the main character of the film. He is a strong and independent guy who is still deeply in love with his ex-girlfriend Emily. Brendan has very few friends as he has cut the majority of them off. However, he does have one very close friend "The Brain" who gives Brendan all of the information and help that he needs. Brendan's a highschool student just like most of the other character in Brick. Brendan is fierce and unafraid. His main goal is to find the murderer of his beloved Emily. Along his journey to find the truth, Brendan meets a drug lord who goes by the name of "The Pin", Laura (the Femme Fatale), Tugger (The Pin's sidekick) and Dode (Emily's boyfriend). Brendan is determined and doesn't stop at anything. Brendan gets into a lot of bad situations but somehow manages to stay strong through them all. He finally finds out the truth from Laura who is the femme fatale. She tells him that the murderer was Tugger. Earlier on, Brendan had tricked The pin and Tugger which led to them being killed in an effort to avoid being arrested. Brendan snitches Laura up to the vice principle which leads to a happy ending afterall.

Laura Danon is the film's Femme Fatale. She is involved with the Pin and Tugger but hides it from Brendan. She tries hard to gain Brendan's trust but isn't at all successful. Laura is a seductive liar who is involved with the Drug Lord. She holds all of the normal qualities of a Femme Fatale. She is pretty, well dressed and high class. She attempts to win over Brendan's heart, but he's too attached to finding Emily's murderer to care. He also doesn't trust her.

The Pin is the Crime Lord who was involved with dealing 'the Bricks'. The Pin is a very shady character who is involved in dealing drugs to many highschool students in the film. The Pin is a very odd character, he is disabled and is forced to walk with a cane which is extremely odd for a villain as it gives him a weakness rather than a strength. The Pin's lair is also in his Mother's basement which is very peculiar. The Pin (as many villains do) wears all black as it represents darkness and is a stereotypical colour for the bad guy to wear. The Pin is a strong character, however he often cannot control his own sidekick Tugger as Tugger has an extremely bad temper and often can't be controlled which causes a lot of problems for The Pin. In Brick, The Pin gets punished for all of his wrong doings, Brendan is the one who finally turns him in which leads to his death as he tries to frantically get out of being caught.

Tugger works for The Pin. He is the one who killed Emily, all because she was with another man, Dode and she was also pregnant. He also then killed Dode because even though Dode was about to accuse Brendan of murdering Emily... Tugger thought that Dode was about to accuse him and so killed him before Dode managed to accuse anyone. Tugger is a bully and uses his strength and aggression to threaten Brendan to stay out of things.

The Brain is called the brain because of his intelligence, that's a clear given. He's also Brendan's one true friend. The Brain sticks with Brendan throughout the whole of the film and helps him every step of the way. The Brain is Brendan's companion and in many ways looks out for him. When Brendan is completely stressed out about what to do, he goes to Brain for someone to talk to about everything that's going on.

CAMERA

To the left is a Long Shot that captures the famous tunnel that is seen multiple times throughout Brick. This shot is used for dramatic effect. It allows the audience to take in the scene, as Brendan crouches in the left hand corner and Emily's dead body lies just outside the tunnel, half in a small stream that runs out from the tunnel. It's dark, creepy and creates a mysterious atmosphere. They help to create huge dramatic effects and allow you to involve a lot of action.

This close up is used again for a very dramatic impact. It focuses the audiences attention on one specific object which in this case, is a dead girls hand decorated with a few blue bangles which are seen again at later points in the film. The close up creates a a very impactful image that sticks in the viewers mind as the object is so big.

The shot on the right is yet another close up which again shows the significance of the small note reading midnight with what looks like an A. This shot however, also used a shallow depth of field meaning that only the note is in focus which puts the majority of the importance on what it says. However, you can also see the time in the background which tells the audience that it's only a minute until midnight. This creates suspense and mystery, it suggests to the audience that this note is really key.

On the left is a low angle shot of the Pin. Low angle shots in Brick are used to show the power that a character holds. The Pin being the villain (Crime Lord) holds a great deal of power and this shot represents his importance, status and power. There are various other low angles that are used in Brick. This is one key example though as it is very low. It makes the Pin look bigger and more threatening as his sits in his very odd and unusually decorated van.

SOUND

Since Brick is a neo noir, it doesn't follow all of the same conventions as the majority of film noirs. One convention that Brick breaks is sound. While the majority of film noirs use jazz or classical music, Brick uses something completely different. The video to the left is one of the pieces involved at the beginning of the film when you first see Emily lying dead just out of the tunnel. The song is eery and mysterious. This piece is actually heard a few other times throughout the film as it's mixed into other pieces. I really like the Brick soundtrack and it's inspired me to try composing my own piece similar to this one in order to create a very tense, suspense atmosphere in my film.