is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Brick Noir.
Brick Noir.
Have you seen Brick? It's a strange little film, a noir-ish murder mystery, set in a high school. The strange part is that it is set in the current timeframe, but the high school students all speak the funny fast-paced slang and jargon of the old B&W noir films. In other words the high school students all speak a language no high school student would ever speak. At first I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stomach that particular aesthetic judgment call, but it grew on me. However, I think it might be a fatal flaw in the eyes (or ears) of anyone who hasn't seen his or her share of old noir films (which I really love, especially the french ones like Rififi and Bob Le Flambeur, etc.)
The high school student-protagonists do retain some of the attitudes and real constraints of being teenagers (meaningless rebellion, parental figures, school principals, etc.) despite their being thrown into the world of noir-speak, which makes for some pretty good comic moments (my favorite is when the strong-arm bully who protects the goth drug dealer threatens to smash in the head of our hero/antihero with the goth's mom's chicken-shaped water decanter. There are also some great moments in the principal's office). I also like the way the lead actor's heroism-to-the-point-of-deathwish for a cause he isn't even certain he believes in is depicted as far from easy for him: he limps from his beating-injuries whenever no one is looking; he quivers in fear at the thought of what he is about to do... until he's about to be seen. It's all about how high school makes you perform a bravery you never really feel, and does so no matter who you are, by which I mean, without regard to what rung you inhabit on the vicious ladder of high school social hierarchy. (Another great moment: our protagonist is beating a stoner up to get information about a girl, and he tells the stoner to have this girl come find him, and that the girl "knows where I eat lunch." Ha. High school is all about WHERE you eat lunch. And this guy eats lunch alone, far away from everyone else.)
The hero/antihero is played by "that guy from Third Rock from the Sun." It strikes me as sad, perhaps, for this young actor, that that is how he is destined to be identified.... because he does seem like an interesting young actor. And yet he is that guy from Third Rock from the Sun, even though I've never even seen that show. (Perhaps he will yet distinguish himself. Or he will transcend himself the way Doogie Howser did.) In any case, he does a great job in the role. Most of the actors in the film do. You've got the disenchanted alienated main figure, the shadowy goth drug dealer who has set up a whole world where the rules operate differently from those inside the high school, networks of secrets and codes and danger, bullies, nerds, and of course dames who are never up to any good (because dames are never up to any good in a noir film). By the end the juxtaposition of noir with high school trauma seems far from forced, almost natural, despite the forced language (and, really, maybe every language spoken in one's teens is "forced"). And so I declare it a film well worth seeing, with the caveat that if you aren't already a fan of noir films, you might not be able to take it. Caroleen was my partner-in-viewing for Brick, and she liked it, but seemed to have a few more reservations, or perhaps different reservations, than I did.
I'm not sure about this yet, but I might be ready to declare Brick a better take on noir than the hott-Clive-Owen-driven I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (which was far from perfect, but had its good moments). (In general it's interesting to read how divided critics were over the merits or lack thereof of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. Makes me think it must have been doing something right.)
Right now I'm in Los Angeles, in David-from-LA's apartment. Last night Evany gave a GREAT performance for an 826LA benefit, hosted by Andy Richter and attended by lots of television types. It was fun. More later on that!
3:03 p.m. - June 11, 2006
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