Movie · 2006 · Drama, Mystery, Crime · 1h 50m · R · English
Curator score: 6.5/10 (257.3K ratings)
A detective story.
Overview
A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.5/10
IMDb: 7.1/10
Letterboxd: 3.70/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Metacritic: 72
TMDB: 6.8/10
Director
Rian Johnson
Production
Bergman Lustig Productions
Cast
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Matt O'Leary, Noah Fleiss, Lukas Haas, Meagan Good, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan, Brian J. White, Richard Roundtree, Jonathan Cauff, Reedy Gibbs, Lucas Babin, Ari Welkom, Tracy Bitterolf, Cody Lightning, McJoel Hamilton, Lauren Johnson, Dylan Lujano
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, low-budget neo-noir that turns a high school into a hardboiled underworld, with stylish direction, clever dialogue, and a surprisingly melancholy core. It can be deliberately opaque at first, but the mood, craft, and performances make it a standout genre debut.
Best for
neo-noir fans
viewers who like stylized crime stories
people who enjoy clever, fast-talking dialogue
fans of indie thrillers with a strong visual identity
audiences open to puzzle-box mysteries
Skip if
you need clear exposition and easy-to-follow plotting
you dislike heightened, stylized dialogue
you want a realistic teen drama
you prefer action over atmosphere and mood
Overview
Brick is a smart, scrappy genre remix that treats teenage life like a Raymond Chandler fever dream. The premise is simple, but the execution is all attitude: clipped slang, hardboiled logic, and a world where every hallway feels like a back alley. It’s funny, tense, and more emotionally bruised than its gimmick first suggests.
Worth noting
Rian Johnson makes an impressive debut by turning budget limits into style, using tight framing, low angles, and brisk pacing to keep the movie feeling sharp and kinetic. Joseph Gordon-Levitt anchors it with a wounded, deadpan intensity that sells both the joke and the danger. The mystery can be intentionally disorienting, but that’s part of the appeal.
Bottom line
What lingers most is how melancholy it becomes beneath the cool surface. For all the noir playfulness, this is really a story about isolation, grief, and kids forced into adult-sized damage. If the concept clicks for you, it’s a blast; if not, it may feel like a beautifully performed riddle.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Ethan ☔️ · 3035 likes
And, in true noir fashion, I had no idea what was happening after 15 minutes.
Josh Lewis (4★) · 2057 likes
Once you get past the cute screenplay tics of its kiddie-noir gimmick this is just a total blast and still one of the most ambitious, cheap indie genre debuts of recent memory. All of its budgetary limitations only contribute even further to its charm and how impressive it is that Johnson never misses an opportunity to shoot a scene as stylishly and kinetically as possible.
demi adejuyigbe · 1821 likes
sweet bean crackers whatta hot little talkie
Hunter ᴴᴰ (4★) · 1492 likes
If Brick was made today, there would definitely be a character who vaped.
amaya (3★) · 1383 likes
i have a very rare brain disease that makes it impossible for me to understand neo-noir movies but i DID appreciate the direction and i DID laugh at joseph gordon-levitt getting knocked out approximately 20 times
2000 · Mystery, Thriller · 1h 53m · R · Curator 9.1/10 (3.2M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
A puzzle-box crime story with relentless momentum, fractured perception, and a similarly obsessive investigation into loss.
2001 · Fantasy, Drama, Mystery · 1h 54m · R · Curator 8.7/10 (3.2M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Teenage isolation, eerie atmosphere, and a suburban world that feels both intimate and uncanny.
1998 · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 2h 1m · R · Curator 8.0/10 (147.9K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, MGM Plus, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A crime story where ordinary people get pulled into escalating moral compromise and dread.
1949 · Thriller, Mystery · 1h 45m · NR · Curator 9.6/10 (377K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, IndieFlix, Cineverse, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Classic noir atmosphere, moral rot, and a mystery that deepens into something more haunting.