Pulp Fiction discussion

One of my favourite film Noir movies is Brick. The title refers to a brick of heroin, but centres around the narrative; hardboiled detective style of a high school student in a Californian suburbia.

The film draws heavily in plot, characterization, and dialogue from hardboiled classics, especially from Dashiell Hammett.

Gasp! I love Brick! Didn't know anyone else even knew about it!

Everyone should know about it :)

This is one of my favourite movies. I watched it over and over but have had a really hard time getting others interested in it.

I'll definitely try to check this one out.

Hey KL I'll be "acquiring" this movie tonight :P
I'm not sure if I've heard of this movie before but after reading your review & IMDB plot has intrigued me to view this movie :) as I love a good murder mystery.

About time you watched it

Hey I finally watched Brick... I think it's a movie I'd have to watch again. In the beginning it was starting to lose me... I think it was because it seemed disorderly and no continuity or something & used code words in it that i didn't get till explained in the movie or maybe I'm showing my young age here :p
I'm not sure it just took at least half the film to get into. But I really loved the ending and now knowing the end I can re-watch the movie & then grasp the beginning & enjoy the movie :)

I think you need to read some old crime
Novels to understand some of the slang

yeah that would probably help :P
what novels would you recommend?

The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Big Sleep are a great starting point

I don't know this on, but feel I must check it out, thanks.

I will have to hunt this one down. Sounds great!

Feel free to start some topics on these movies

Finished watching this last night. I caught it on netflix. I thought it was an interesting concept to take the noir angle into a high school setting, but I thought it took a little too long to get to the main crux of the story. Also, the characters speak a little too quick. Still, it was kinda cool to see the attempt to move noir to a different setting. If you watch it, I would recommend using subtitles. There's quite a bit of slang (kind of a modern, teen noir slang...example "I've got knives in my eyes"...translation "I've got a bad headache.") and it's difficult to follow, but you get the gist of the story as it develops. The lead actor, who plays Brendan, did a pretty good job (his name escapes me).

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a fine actor

A Korean crime movie I thought was well worth the time was Dalkomhan Insaeng (A Bittersweet Life)

My review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RRJY9PGK...

I'm not sure if Cidade de Deus (City of God) would be considered noir or hardboiled, but it's certainly hard-edged and also very good.

Again, my review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R5L6YC55...

Michael wrote: "A Korean crime movie I thought was well worth the time was Dalkomhan Insaeng (A Bittersweet Life)

My review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/RRJY9PGK...

I'm not sure if Cid..."

I'll have to check those out. I've been wanting to watch City of God.

My husband doesn't normally like my taste in movies, especially not old ones (ie film noir), which is why I thought it was so funny that he really liked this one.

Cool movie. I haven't found others who've seen it except on this site. Hammett does high school.

Such an underrated movie. Whenever someone asks do I have any movie suggestions I state this.

I saw this film a few years ago and I thought it was an amazing concept that was very well executed. The contrast between the noir story and the high school setting made the story of lost innocence and corruption even stronger for me.

Have fun.
Gamal

When I first met my wife I wanted to introduce her to film noir and took her on an early version of my our current film noir-a-thon. Maltese Falcon - Chinatown - Blade Runner - Big Lebowski - Brick and Brick was hands down her favourite of the five (which is saying something when you consider the quality of the other four.)

I think Gamal sums it up perfectly The contrast between the noir story and the high school setting made the story of lost innocence and corruption even stronger for me. This coupled with the innovative script and direction makes for a stunning and truly memorable film.

On a side note, I still haven't seen Rian Johnson's new film Looper but I'm very excited by the idea.

Looper isn't as fresh. I thought it had potential, but it is basically just an entertaining action movie. Not bad, but it uses too many ideas that have been done before to be anything outstanding.

Tfitoby wrote: "When I first met my wife I wanted to introduce her to film noir and took her on an early version of my our current film noir-a-thon. Maltese Falcon - Chinatown - Blade Runner - Big Lebowski - Brick..."

Looper was pretty cool and not surprising its the same director. It had Noir feel to it you find in the better SF/noir books. I wish it was more crime,noir story than action film myself. JGL was awesome in it.

Love love love Brick. I didn't realize it when I watched it the first time, but I read that the director (or writer?) deliberately styled it after Hammett and Chandler. It's really clever what he does with the dialogue, and while it comes off a bit too snappy to be natural according to today's movie styles, it really takes something directly from those old noir movies like The Thin Man, Maltese Falcon, etc. which makes it stylistically beautiful in my opinion.