Brick (2005) - A

I have to credit Skaff Elias for discovering "Brick." He noticed the description going through his cable guide, and thought it sounded interesting--he was definitely right. I don't have the actual description from Comcast's program guide, but TV Guide's description is in the same vein: "The ghost of Dashiell Hammett haunts the corridors of a nondescript suburban high school in this odd but engagingly off-kilter thriller."

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention up front that I tend to be a big fan of taking material and adapting it to a high school setting. "Clueless" is one of my favorite movie adaptations of Jane Austin, and "Ten Things I Hate About You" is one of my favorite movies based on Shakespeare. Of course, seeing these types of movies is fairly high risk, since you also end up seeing absolute stinkers like "She's The Man," a terrible adaptation of Twelfth Night from 2006.

"Brick" takes a Philip Marlowe style murder mystery and superimposes it onto a high school setting. It has a good cast, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the kid alien on "3rd Rock from the Sun") as the detective, Emilie de Ravin (Claire on "Lost") as his ex who's in some kind of trouble, and Nora Zehetner (Laynie Hart on "Everwood" and Eden on "Heroes") as the femme fatale he meets during his investigation. It is really fun to see how the movie translates various film noir conventions. Instead of getting dragged down to the police station and getting worked over, he gets pulled into the assistant vice principals office, for example. The script is tight, filled with fun twists and good dialogue, and the ending was extremely satisfying.

Final Grade: A