Analysis of the Film Noir: Brick

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Brick Rian Johnson’s Brick is the first teen film to adopt the film noir genre. In doing so, Johnson created a teen film that is not only new and unique, but that can also be appreciated by adults and adolescents alike. Brick uses film noir style to create a teen film that models teenage feelings, rather than to overused stereotypes. Brick is the story of Brendan (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a high school student, searching for the killer of his ex-girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin). Brendan adopts the role of the gumshoe detective, and sets about to track down Emily’s killer. His trail brings him head-to-head with the local drug pin, known as “The Pin” (Lukas Haas), and Brendan soon finds himself investigating much more than just a murder. Teen films have evolved so that they no longer represent real teenagers—instead they perpetuate stereotypes. This portrayal of the stereotyped teen creates two issues. First, it prevents teenagers from perceiving that “the pangs of adolescence are a universal truth, not a personal wound” because they are unable to relate to the teenage depictions seen in film. Secondly, it provides adults “with a peculiarly jaundiced view of teenagers within American society,” preventing an understanding between the young and old. Brick’s neo-noir style corrects both these issues by creating a realistic teen world through the means of a genre, film noir, which is familiar to older generations. Brick does not present high school or teenagers as they are, but rather, attempts to portray teenagers as they feel. Film noir did much the same thing for the post-war era, in that the tone and mood of film noir are apropos of how things really are, a sense of reality, not distorted, but conveyed by expressionist techniques and convoluted plot lines. The mindset of an isolated teenager in high school closely resembles the isolation and

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