--- title: "Brick" year: 2006 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/brick" fi1m_id: "brick" imdb_id: "tt0393109" tmdb_id: 9270 wikidata_id: "Q913439" fi1m_score: 81 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-15" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:30.382905+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Brick (2006) Directed by Rian Johnson · 1h 50m · MPA R · Drama, Mystery, Crime ## Identity Brick - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/brick - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** brick - **IMDb ID:** tt0393109 - **TMDB ID:** 9270 - **Wikidata ID:** Q913439 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393109/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/9270, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q913439 **Fi1m score: 81** · Critics 79 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* A school full of teenagers who could make asking for a pencil sound like a threat > Rian Johnson’s high-school noir is sharp, tense and worth the concentration it demands. Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes the elaborate talk convincing, though some of the supporting characters remain hard to care about. ## Synopsis Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a loner playing detective in a contemporary suburban high school. Around him, teenagers adopt the roles of gangsters and other figures from hard-boiled crime fiction, speaking a slang that belongs to their own closed society. His investigation takes place amid the school’s social divisions, with adolescent troubles providing the material for a noir mystery. Nora Zehetner plays Laura Dannon, Matt O’Leary is The Brain and Lukas Haas is The Pin, alongside Emilie de Ravin as Emily Kostich. Rian Johnson writes and directs a detective story set among schoolchildren. ## Review Rian Johnson’s *Brick* is an absorbing detective film with a demanding way of speaking, and we recommend it if a mystery that requires concentration sounds like pleasure. Johnson writes and directs a contemporary high-school story in which teenagers conduct themselves like private eyes and gangsters. He takes their posturing seriously enough for it to acquire some weight. The danger is that we spend the evening admiring the idea, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives us a reason to care about the person doing the investigating. The dialogue takes some getting used to. Johnson borrows the compressed, combative language of Dashiell Hammett’s detective fiction and gives it to adolescents, who have plenty of reasons to avoid saying plainly what they want. There is humour in the mismatch, but the actors rarely solicit a laugh, and the school setting makes the obsession with status feel credible. Some exchanges still go by too quickly to untangle; when the plotting is this busy, a missed phrase can leave us catching up through the next conversation. Gordon-Levitt plays Brendan Frye with a quietness that helps the extravagant language sound usable. His loner does not seem to be enjoying the opportunity to act like a detective, which makes a difference in a film so open to showing off. We winced during his fight with the school jock. The violence is treated seriously, and Gordon-Levitt’s restraint elsewhere makes that physical confrontation more uncomfortable than the premise initially leads us to expect. Steve Yedlin’s cinematography gives the sunny suburban setting an unwelcoming air without making it look like permanent midnight. Keeping this detective story in recognisable daylight is a sensible choice: the young characters already supply enough borrowed menace. Jodie Lynn Tillen’s production design keeps their surroundings ordinary, allowing the criminal behaviour to feel intrusive rather than comfortably at home. The school remains recognisable as a place where the people involved should have rather less urgent things to worry about. Johnson also edits, and the cutting has a nervous energy that keeps the investigation moving even when the dialogue threatens to clog it. It can also compound the difficulty of following who knows what; a little more room between exchanges would have helped. Nathan Johnson’s score uses unsettled, abstract sounds that suit the unease of these everyday places. The music helps make the setting threatening, though it cannot make a tangled conversation any easier to follow. The larger reservation concerns the people around Brendan. Nora Zehetner’s Laura Dannon and Lukas Haas’s The Pin are intriguing presences, but too often we are watching performers fulfil the requirements of a detective story. That limits how much the adolescent distress can reach us, despite Gordon-Levitt’s efforts to keep it close. Johnson’s fondness for elaborate plotting sometimes leaves too little space for anyone to seem capable of doing something ordinary. As a high-school film, *Brick* understands how completely a small society can occupy the people inside it. As a crime film, it earns much of its tension by treating the young characters’ troubles without condescension. At 110 minutes, it asks for sustained attention, and the pleasure of working through it is substantial enough to justify the effort. Save it for an evening when nobody wants to talk over the dialogue. *Fi1m score 81, published 15 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to Brick’s transfer of hard-boiled detective fiction to high-school life, praising Rian Johnson’s commitment to treating the unlikely combination seriously. The invented slang, dense plotting and everyday suburban settings draw particular approval for making familiar noir conventions feel strange again. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s restrained lead performance is a recurring strength, grounding dialogue that could easily become a joke. Several reviews also find convincing adolescent anxiety and hurt beneath the elaborate detective story. The main division is over how much feeling survives all that cleverness. Even favourable reviews acknowledge that the rapid dialogue and convoluted mystery can be difficult to follow, while some find the characters too contrived to care about. The New York Times finds the concept ambitious but dull in practice; Slant Magazine sees detailed craftsmanship without sufficient emotional or social substance. The spread is substantial: admirers find the stylisation revealing, while dissenters see little beyond an ingenious exercise. ## Straight answers **Is Brick worth watching?** *Brick* is worth watching for anyone who enjoys a mystery that demands concentration, and we scored it 81. Rian Johnson's high-school noir is sharp and tense, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt making the elaborate hard-boiled talk sound usable, though some supporting characters are hard to care about. Save it for an evening when nobody will talk over the dialogue. **How long is Brick, and what is it rated?** *Brick* runs 1h 50m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and mystery film. **Where can I watch Brick in the US?** *Brick* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Brick, and is it suitable for children?** *Brick* carries no UK certificate and is rated R in the United States, and it is not a film for children. The violence is sparing but treated seriously; a fight between Brendan and the school jock made us wince, and the tone is one of borrowed menace throughout. Older teenagers who enjoy detective fiction are its natural audience. **How does Brick compare to The Maltese Falcon?** *Brick* is a contemporary high-school detective story, while [*The Maltese Falcon*](https://film.one/film/the-maltese-falcon) is the classic hard-boiled film it borrows its manner of speaking from. Both are sharp, cold and full of suspicious company, but Humphrey Bogart's film has the funnier, more assured cast, and its people are easier to care about. The earlier film is the better company; Johnson's is the stranger experiment. **What should I watch after Brick?** After *Brick*, try [*The Maltese Falcon*](https://film.one/film/the-maltese-falcon) (1941, Fi1m 87): For hard-boiled speech, suspicious company and a detective who listens carefully. Then [*Le Samouraï*](https://film.one/film/le-samourai) (1967, Fi1m 88): Another solitary man follows strict private rules through an increasingly dangerous city; and [*Heathers*](https://film.one/film/heathers) (1989, Fi1m 80): School hierarchies become lethal, with dialogue nobody ever used during registration. ### Reviews we read (17) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): Ebert praises the film's straight-faced transposition of classic hard-boiled detective style and dialogue to a contemporary high school setting. He highlights the director's commitment to the concept and the effective atmosphere and archetypes. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brick-2006) - **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (A-): Johnson's precocious debut cleverly merges Dashiell Hammett-style detective fiction and invented hard-boiled slang with contemporary high-school life and adolescent angst, anchored by Joseph Gordon-Levitt's strong lead performance. The low-budget, visually arresting result is a densely plotted, inventive genre hybrid that rewards repeat viewings despite some film-school exercise qualities. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/brick-1798201586) - **The New Yorker**, David Denby (90/100, inferred): Denby calls the low-budget film rapturous and one of the most entertaining releases of the year, praising its internal logic, funny moments, and real emotions amid the noir pastiche. He singles out the clever updating of Hammett-style dialogue and plotting to sunny suburban high school life. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/04/03/tobacco-and-drugs) - **Empire**, Damon Wise (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Rian Johnson's debut as one of the most original and entertaining films of the year so far, a smart neo-noir that works as an ingenious mindgame. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's lead performance is singled out as a major strength amid the film's stylized dialogue and convoluted mystery. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/brick-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Carina Chocano (80/100, inferred): Chocano finds the debut witty and assured, transcending both the noir genre and high-school setting with sly knowingness and understated emotion. She praises Joseph Gordon-Levitt's intelligent, grounded performance as the brooding loner detective. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-mar-31-et-brick31-story.html) - **Variety** (60/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a stunt that puts hard-boiled vernacular into teens' mouths with moderately tasty results, noting the story is derivative but gains finesse; it praises Gordon-Levitt's handling of the dialogue. [Read](https://variety.com/2005/film/markets-festivals/brick-1200528374/) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (50/100, inferred): Holden finds the high-school noir concept attention-grabbing but ultimately dull despite its stylish gloss and twisty plot borrowed from Hammett. He notes its raw ambition stands out among teen dramas. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/movies/joseph-gordonlevitt-is-a-teenage-bogart-at-noir-high-in-brick.html) - **Screen Daily**: An exciting, shrewd and intense debut that takes its noir high-school premise seriously in all the right places, creating a meticulously wrought and convincingly convoluted whodunit. It praises the tonal balance, the central performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the creation of surreal dramatic tension. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/brick/4021878.article) - **Sight and Sound**, Hannah McGill: The film is a striking debut that uses hard-boiled noir conventions to capture the hermetic intensity of high-school society. It borrows not just style cues but a sense of obsessiveness and social breakdown as a metaphor for adolescent experience. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/3239) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez: The film is an obsessively detailed but hollow transposition of noir tropes and jargon to a high-school setting that fails to reinvent the genre or add moral or social weight. It builds an intricate visual and aural contraption whose cleverness ultimately yields little beyond surface ingenuity. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/brick/) - **The Guardian**: The critic describes the film as a bizarre and ingenious neo-noir with crackling dialogue and consistent style set in a high school, but notes it is difficult to care about the contrived characters and that it is more a super-smart experiment in style than fully satisfying. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/may/12/1) - **The Telegraph**: The critic calls Brick a wildly original film noir with schoolchildren as private eye, gangsters and femme fatale, praising its exhilarating originality despite plot complexity and hard-to-follow dialogue. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3652004/Drugsy-Malone.html) - **Time Out**, Ben Walters: A patter-heavy gumshoe procedural set in high school that succeeds through heightened plotting, dialogue and straight-faced engagement with violence. It is most enjoyable when teetering on the brink of ridiculousness, with strong praise for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's understated lead performance and the film's use of sound and everyday settings for unease. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/brick-1) - **Eye for Film**, Anton Bitel (85/100, inferred): Rian Johnson's debut cleverly fuses film noir with the high-school movie to create a hybrid that transcends both genres while remaining true to their conventions. The critic praises the witty, convoluted plotting and the way the film exposes the lethal complications of adolescent life through stylized artificiality. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/brick-film-review-by-anton-bitel) - **Paste**, Steve Dollar (80/100, inferred): Johnson's crackling debut shakes up the noir genre with a high-school setting while indulging familiarity with it. The jittery editing, mannered dialogue, and abstract score sustain tension and deliver a left-field surprise worth the effort. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/brick) - **The Skinny**, Keir Hind (★★★★): The critic calls it one of the best recent film noirs and highly original for its high-school setting, praising the gritty visuals, sharp writing, detective work and emotional payoff, while noting it can be too slick and hard to follow at times. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/brick) - **Digital Spy**, Daniel Saney (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the original genre-bending idea of a high-school noir and its unique style and mystery, but notes it is more intellectually engaging than emotionally involving and can be confusing due to rapid dialogue delivery. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a33114/brick/) ## Details - **Director:** Rian Johnson - **Director:** Rian Johnson - **Writer:** Rian Johnson - **Cinematography:** Steve Yedlin - **Editor:** Rian Johnson - **Music:** Nathan Johnson - **Production design:** Jodie Lynn Tillen - **Costume design:** Michele Posch - **Producer:** Ram Bergman, Mark G. Mathis - **Cast:** Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan Frye; Nora Zehetner as Laura Dannon; Matt O'Leary as The Brain; Noah Fleiss as Tugger; Lukas Haas as The Pin; Meagan Good as Kara; Emilie de Ravin as Emily Kostich; Noah Segan as Dode - **Runtime:** 1h 50m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 31 March 2006 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery, Crime - **Budget:** $475,000 - **Box office:** $4 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awbOgB7yB_Q ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-15.* Also available in: AT, BE, BR, CA, CH, CL, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, NL, NO, NZ, PH, PL, PT, SE, SG, TH, US, VN. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Sundance Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision Dramatic 2005: Sundance Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision Dramatic (won) ## If you liked this - *The Maltese Falcon* (1941), Fi1m 87: For hard-boiled speech, suspicious company and a detective who listens carefully. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-maltese-falcon.md) - *Le Samouraï* (1967), Fi1m 88: Another solitary man follows strict private rules through an increasingly dangerous city. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/le-samourai.md) - *Heathers* (1989), Fi1m 80: School hierarchies become lethal, with dialogue nobody ever used during registration. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/heathers.md) - *Cure* (1997), Fi1m 85: A colder detective story whose unease makes ordinary places difficult to trust. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cure.md) - *The Kid Detective* (2020): A former child sleuth discovers how poorly his habits suit adult misery. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/brick