Brick

So, it's been another crappy year for movies. As in, at this time 2 years ago I used to go to the theater every other week to see a misguided-but-entertaining cinematic epic and not entirely regret the choice. But now, we have drek after drek appearing in the cinema, with only the occasional thing worth paying 8 bucks to see (this year, only V for Vendetta and Munich come to mind) and Spiderman 3 and Hellboy 2 are still a year away, dammit. But I think I just saw my favorite film of this year - Brick.

In the simplest terms, Brick is a classic film noir set in a modern day high school. Our "detective" - a thinly disguised Mike Hammer and just as two-fisted - is a troubled kit on the lookout for his ex-girlfriend. The femme fatale is a hip girl who seems to be in with everyone. The sidekick is a brainy kid who spends most of his time solving Rubik's Cubes and studying in the library. Vice principals replace the cops, and small-time drug dealers replace organized criminals. But all the elements of an old-time noir are there - the moody jazz soundtrack, the ominous visuals, the hard-bitten dialogue and 60 year old slang, everything.

I appreciated this film not just for its commitment to style, its genre or its execution, but for its clever insights into suburban life and the way the filmmakers bent that to fit a style that has been considered comatose for over half a century. The high school is turned into a microcosm of a noir's metropolis, where statements like "She knows where I eat lunch" and "meet me at my locker...come alone" make perfect sense while paying homage to that which came before. Genius. Joseph Gordon-Leavitt (yeah, that kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun) is awesome as the principal character and easily gives the best performance of his career to boot. IF you get a chance, I'd highly recommend catching this little gem, whereever you can.