Shoup Airlines

A Brick in the Dead Man’s Shoes

You ever wonder what it would have been like to be in high school with the likes of Sam Spade or Johnny Rocco?  Rian Johnson did and then he wrote a little story about it and then he directed that little story and then he titled it Brick.

Here’s your warning:  You will not like this film unless you enjoy noir.

Now you know why I ate it up.  As much as I want to find some fault with this movie, I can’t.  You have the brooding gumshoe still carrying the torch for an old flame that suddenly disappears, the well connected rat that has dealt with the gumshoe in the past, the hoodlums hiding in the shadows, the shrewd businessman with his muscle and the beautiful vixen playing her own angle.  Oh and it all takes place between second period home ec and third period U.S. history with tommy gun spewed dialogue and a lingo all their own that even I had difficulty following at times.

It sounds gimmicky but Johnson is able to ground it in reality, hard. Particularly when the gumshoe takes a few beatings, the display of brutality and sheer honesty convey just how far these “kids” will go to get what they want.  Where John Hughes was able to illuminate the different cliques and give them all emotion, Rian Johnson has shattered that spotlight bringing the stereotypes back into stark relief.

Dead Man’s Shoes is just as bad in comprehension of what they’re saying but this time it’s because they’re British and mumble.   However it  doesn’t distract from the story, surprisingly.

A man, just out of the service, returns to the small town he grew up in only to discover that the local band of druggies tormented his younger brother quite severely in his absence.  Driven by the bonds of brotherly love, the brother sets out to exact revenge but what begins as guerrilla tactics designed simply to scare the miscreants slides quickly down the slippery slope as he systematically knocks each thug off.

What sets this film apart from your standard revenge thriller is that the main characters are quite real, you most likely know one or two of them.  Plus, the story arc is driven in much the same way you would do things if you had the means, then again that may just be M.D. coming out in me.

Regardless, it’s a quick paced film with a palpable darkness that I think anyone with siblings can relate to.