Philosophy | Movies
‘Brick’ is Rian Johnson’s Treatise on Masculinity
Joseph Gordon-Levitt kneels a lot in ‘Brick’. He also holds his hands together in a half clasp next to his nose a lot. He also contemplates a lot, and he also thinks a lot. There are a lot of “a lot”s in Rian Johnson’s directorial debut, a homage to classic hardboiled detective novels. Joseph Gordon Levit’s character Brendan is on a mission to figure out what happened to his ex-girlfriend. All we need to motivate our character, and in turn the audience, is the body of a young girl.
The great Emilie de Ravin — who plays Claire in the excellent ABC television series ‘Lost’ — is Emily Kostich, a young girl who got into too much trouble with a local crime syndicate and found her fate sealed at the end of a dark and deep tunnel, water washing over her pale fingers.
Framed by a Taratino-esque obsession with feet, except this time in the form of shoes, we follow Brendan pouncing his way through an unnamed sleepy town in Southern California. He does this with his fists constantly stuffed in his pockets ala Bertolucci’s great film from the 1960s.
