Brick

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Brick

R

2005

1h 49m

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

79%

Tomatometer

139 Reviews

86%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

After receiving a frantic phone call from his ex-girlfriend, teenage loner Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) learns that her dead body has been found. Vowing to solve her murder himself, he must infiltrate high-school cliques that he previously avoided. His search for the truth places him before some of the school's roughest characters, leading to a confrontation with a drug dealer known as the Pin (Lukas Haas).

Critics Consensus

This entertaining homage to noirs past has been slickly and compellingly updated to a contemporary high school setting.

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Victoria Segal

New Statesman

Sep 26, 2017

Brick is quotable, clever and cryptic...

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Ben Walters

Time Out

Jun 24, 2006

The self-consciously mannered rat-a-tat-tat dialogue also mines a neat overlap between teen slang and noir patois, both of which can be indecipherable to non-initiates.

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Tim Cogshell

Boxoffice Magazine

Jun 24, 2006

3/4

While Brick is chock-full of the characters, language and imagery of classic noir, it is in fact set among contemporary teenagers. It's a gimmick, but it's a damn fine gimmick.

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Grant Hermanns

Screen Rant

Jul 10, 2025

9/10

Rian Johnson's Brick remains one of the most remarkable directorial debuts with his combination of a sharp, energetic script and stylish direction.

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Justin Brown

Medium Popcorn

May 28, 2023

2/5

I'm not particularly into this genre and then putting it in a high school setting was a bit weird. But it was entertaining to watch because it's so nutty. It's a grounded, nutty film.

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Brandon Collins

Medium Popcorn

May 28, 2023

4/5

This movie floored me when I first saw it and it still holds up despite some inconsistent performances and pacing. "Brick" made me a lifelong fan of Rian Johnson.

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Hagrid S

Mar 24, 2019

Joseph Gordon-Levitt slickly manifests the noir genre's past investigators to give an idea of their rite of passage to the tough, constantly mysterious field, surrounding a targeted macguffin that needs to be solved. The contemporary setting adds into the modern narrative fashion of presenting a younger, originated perspective to the classical golden entertainment with both the narrative and cinematographic and narrative energy being successfully replicated at recognition as if stylistically remained intact. (B+) (Full review TBD)

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Finn S

Mar 8, 2019

Stinks like an old dumpster.

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Finn W

Mar 3, 2019

My favorite movie that is basically an underrated gem. Ig you have not watched this movie please check it out on bluray, dvd or netflix. This is thr perfect film Noir and it takes some of the best elements from Anime such as Cowboy Bebop

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Mar 2, 2019

Noir, they said! It will be great, they said! This film was trying way too hard to be "cool" with aloof characters exchanging cringeworthy rapid-fire dialogue, impossible to decipher without a Captain Crunch Decoder. As this drivel droned on for close to two hours, I found I couldn't care less about the storyline or the annoying characters either way until finally, the closing credits, and sweet relief!

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Hagrid M

Feb 19, 2019

This felt like a student film but with a few recognizable actors that were a total waste here. There was not one single likeable character and as this movie dragged on I just found myself wishing that every single character would be killed off. How on earth do movies like this even get funding?

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Jan 4, 2019

I don't like what you've done to Luke Skywalker.

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Rian Johnson

Director

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Brendan Frye

Lukas Haas

The Pin

Nora Zehetner

Laura Dannon

Noah Fleiss

Tugger

Matt O'Leary

The Brain

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Synopsis

After receiving a frantic phone call from his ex-girlfriend, teenage loner Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) learns that her dead body has been found. Vowing to solve her murder himself, he must infiltrate high-school cliques that he previously avoided. His search for the truth places him before some of the school's roughest characters, leading to a confrontation with a drug dealer known as the Pin (Lukas Haas).

Director: Rian Johnson
Producer: Ram Bergman, Mark G. Mathis
Screenwriter: Rian Johnson
Production Co: Bergman Lustig Productions
Rating: R (Violent Content|Drug Content)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 21, 2005, Original
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Mar 31, 2006
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 12, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.1M
Runtime: 1h 49m

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