History Film / Brick

** And the convoluted structure owes itself to ''Literature/TheBigSleep'', and RaymondChandler's style in general.

* [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp Battle]]/NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: There are several of these throughout the film, with a lot of different characters winding up on the receiving end. Not surprisingly, Tug perpetrates most of them, but every so often we see that Brendan can give as good as he gets.

* CurbStompBattle/NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: There are several of these throughout the film, with a lot of different characters winding up on the receiving end. Not surprisingly, Tug perpetrates most of them, but every so often we see that Brendan can give as good as he gets.

* [[EarnYourHappyEnding Earn Your Bittersweet Ending]]: After getting beat to hell a couple times, getting in a half dozen fights, outsmarting another few folks high up on the food chain, and surviving the first shots of a potential gang war, Brendan finally gets to rest knowing that he punished the people that were behind Emily's murder.

** Also how he defeats Chuck Burns (the knife guy).

* TheDragon: Tug

* TheVamp: Kara and [[spoiler: Laura]].

* TotallyRadical: Perhaps the strangest version of this in history. The characters are modern day teenagers who all speak like hardboiled characters in a P.I. story with dialogue that sounds like nonsense to anyone who didn't grow up reading with Dashiel Hammett.

** And the convoluted structure owes itself to ''TheBigSleep'', and RaymondChandler's style in general.

* TheIngenue: Emily

** "Oh, you're ''dangerous"'', that Brendan says to Lauren, is verbatim from ''TheMalteseFalcon'', when Spade is talking to Brigid.

* RiddleForTheAges: We might never find out what Laura whispered to Brendan.
** In [[http://www.rcjohnso.com/brickscript/BrickScript.pdf a shooting script]] on his website, Rian Johnson reveals what Laura whispered at the end: [[spoiler: Motherfucker, referencing the fact that Brendan and not Dode was the father of Emily's baby.]] Also, you can actually hear it if you turn the volume up.
** Which means Brendan was telling the truth ("she called me a dirty word") while doubling as TheReveal.
*** It's worth noting too that this is a homage to the Dashiell Hammett short story, "The Girl with the Silver Eyes," which ends identically: [[spoiler:"She put her mouth close to my ear so that her breath was warm again on my cheek, as it had been in the car, and [[NarrativeProfanityFilter whispered the vilest epithet of which the English language is capable.]]"]]

* FakeAmerican: Emilie De Ravin does a terrific American accent. So good that many thought Her Australian accent in ''[[Lost]]'' was fake.

Even though it takes place in the modern day, the characters in Brick all speak in an invented slang closely based off of vernacular speech in the '20s, '30s, and '40s. The high school social cliques match surprisingly well with traditional noir archetypes. Much like its inspirations (such as the noir classic, ''Film/TheMalteseFalcon''), one of Brick's main strengths is in its hard-boiled dialogue. The film also boasts excellent cinematography and strong performances.

Take {{film noir}}, a generous dose of high school intrigue, a dash of David Lynch, and toss them all into a blender. What you get is probably going to be Brick. That, or charges for the murder of David Lynch.

A 2006 cult film directed by Rian Johnson, Brick tells the story of Brendan Frye ({{Joseph Gordon-Levitt}}), a teenage loner silently pining over his ex-girlfriend, Emily. When he gets a phone call from a panicked Emily, and finds her dead in a storm drain soon after, he goes on a one-man quest to bring her murderer(s) to justice, blowing the lid off of his high school's underworld of drugs and crimes.

* [[spoiler: TheChessmaster: Laura, as the BigBad. Brendan is a heroic example.]]

* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu?: Brendan in the Pin's kitchen, being given breakfast by [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas the Pin's mom]].

* HeroicBSOD / HeroicRROD: Brendan gets one of each. The latter is ongoing, and actually pretty disturbing in the implication of just how much internal organ damage he's dealing with.

* TheDanza: Emily Kostich is played by Emilie de Ravin
* TheDragon: Tug
* TheIngenue: Emily
* TheSummation: Interestingly, Brendan gives it to the mastermind. [[spoiler: Laura, natch!]] Then the mastermind offers a [[TearJerker correction]]...

* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What Happened To The Mouse?]]: [[spoiler:The Pin's mom is in the house only minutes before all hell broke loose; what happened to her during the climax and afterwards?]]
* TotallyRadical: Perhaps the strangest version of this in history. The characters are modern day teenagers who all speak like hardboiled characters in a P.I. story with dialogue that sounds like nonsense to anyone who didn't grow up reading with Dashiel Hammett. Unlike most instances of this trope, it works very much in the film's favor.

-->Dode: [[spoiler: She was gonna keep it! It was mine, and you couldn't stand that! ...I loved her. And I woulda loved that kid. I'm gonna bury you.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: {{Subverted}}. It looks like Brendan is keeping things quiet because he does not believe the police can catch Emily's killer, but towards the end he makes it pretty clear that the cops could have easily found [[spoiler: Tug]], and he plans to use them to roust the drug ring. He kept the original murder quiet because he was not interested in finding the actual triggerman, but "who put her in front of the gun."

* {{Nerd}}: Both the Brain and the Pin. And Brendan seems like one, but doesn't obsess over anything...except, yeah, Em.

* {{Nerd}}: Both the Brain and the Pin.

* NoodleIncident: What went down between Brendan and "Jerr" before the events of the film.
** WordOfGod is that [[spoiler:Jerr was a drug dealer who started getting friendly with Emily. Brendan didn't approve of this, so he partnered up with Jerr in a dope racket and then set him up for Trueman. Emily didn't approve of such blatant meddling in her life, and that's what lead to the fight in the flashback.]]

->'''Brendan''': I can't let her go. I was set to, but I can't. I don't think I can.

->'''The Brain''': You think you can get the straight? Maybe break some deserving teeth?

** YourMileageMayVary to [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]]. Sure, [[spoiler: Brendan's likely an emotional wreck after the last week, several people have been killed, the girl he [[DidTheyOrDidntThey may or may not have slept with]] hours prior is the one who set his girlfriend up to die and he's probably suffering from extensive internal bleeding]], but after all that, he's solved the crime. Deserving people will see punishment. He gets to sleep.