Brick

(Rian Johnson, 2005)

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's noir-style Chandleresque detective bullshit. Consequently, I've found myself in the position of loathing several generally well-regarded films. One example (which enjoys a status of almost Biblical proportions among screenwriters) is Chinatown. I've made two attempts in my life to sit through this ponderous film, and in each case failed to last more than about twenty minutes before experiencing the onset of a particularly acute sense of rigid boredom. (No further attempts are likely to be scheduled.) Another, more recent, example is Sin City, which I endured in its ridiculously overstretched entirity only because I'd paid cold hard coin to see it in a cinema. Sure, it looks nice; but all it really amounts to is yet more dreary old bollocks about dangerous dames, world-weary private dicks, shady characters inhabiting dockland areas, and enigmatic one-word clues hand-scrawled on the backs of nightclub matchbooks.
Now, given that the aim of Brick is to transpose genre conventions such as these into a contemporary high-school setting, I was, as you can imagine, extremely wary about the prospect of watching it. To my astonishment, it works brilliantly. Yes, there is a potential stench of contrivance about the way that familiar high-school character types are played up as slick-talking detective-genre types (loner kid = world-weary private dick; rich bitch = dangerous dame; school bully = shady thug; etc., etc.). But the unreservedly surreal results of this transposition entirely freed me from any presupposition that I ought to be taking things seriously (which is the main thing that annoys me about detective stories in the first place); especially when we're introduced to gangland drug overlord, The Pin; who is, in fact, a disabled kid who lives in his mum's basement.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt (aka Tommy off of TV's Third Rock from the Sun) plays an absolute blinder in the lead role, and the script and direction are crafted to perfection. This film has atmosphere dripping out of every orifice. Watch it.