YNOT at the Movies

"Brick" doesn't work for me, because I don't even know what the hell they are talking about in the film, literally. The characters speak their own language, an underworld drug dealing code language. I saw a big movie poster outside the theatre with translations of vocabulary those characters used in the film. So, why doesn't the movie have subtitles?

In a California high school, a skinny kid Brendan, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (seen Mysterious Skin yet?), found his girlfriend is dead. So, instead of calling the cop, he went on a mission to be a detective to find out what really happened and who killed her.

These kids don't go to classes, don't have homework, don't have parents around (except one guy), and they either hang around in the parking lot or have secret underground parties. None of them talk like high school kids. It's alright if the director tries to make a film follow his unique vision and speak somebody else's language. But why does the movie have to be set in high school and to make none of these kids slightly realistic, on purpose?

There are a lot drugs and violence in the film. But somehow Brendan like a superman that he can never been hurt no matter how badly he is beaten up. Oh, I forgot, this is a film not supposed to be realistic.

I have never read the detective story the film is based on, do I have to before I go to a movie?

My rating: 5 out of 10.