King for a lifetime, fool for a... lifetime...

You ever been in that nebulous state of mind where you know you should go to sleep, but you don't feel like going to sleep nor can you think of anything worth waking up for the next morning? I'm there. It's not fun or particularly assuring. These are the times when you feel most alone. Reading a book or watching TV might just knock you out and God forbid you should be left alone with your eerie dreams of isolation. You turn to a blinking cursor on a stupid computer screen instead. This is solace. This is avoiding the screaming in your head. I know you know what I'm talking about.

I saw Brick tonight. What a terrific film. My expectations: exceeded. Upon seeing the trailer, I thought, "Huh... interesting. Maybe I'll check it out." Let me tell you, it's just great. I actually wanted more when the end credits were rolling. That rarely happens. Brick would've made for an excellent TV show. A natural comparison arises between this film and Veronica Mars. I'll take the former any day. I mean, the Mars is good, but it's high school universe has all of two interesting characters (Veronica and Logan, if you're keeping score at home). Brick takes itself so seriously that all of the pretences associated with the teen genre (smug irony, sexcapades, etc) fall by the wayside and, man, are we happy about that! Joseph Gordon Levitt manages to carry off the most cartoonish noir lingo superbly, which is a saving grace of this movie. His scene with Richard Roundtree is perhaps the only one that deserved any ironic laughter from the audience because, wow, it's just a ridiculous exchange. But it works and it works well. You shouldn't be able to make a noir film set in a high school and make it in complete earnestness, but they did it. A very dense genre piece -- and I love it for that, you better pay attention or it's your own fault because the movie assumes you're intelligent enough to keep up (yay!) -- so if you like your noir, check it out. Highly recommended.