A detective story much in the style of Raymond Chandler’s famed Philip Marlowe novels. A quick witted hard hitting ‘detective’ finds the corpse of an ex flame and embarks on a mission to uncover the mystery behind her untimely demise. Much like ‘Bladerunner’ it’s a tribute to film noir and hardboiled crime stories. Whereas Bladerunner set its story in an LA of the future and exchanged henchmen for androids, Brick transfers a traditional tale of dames, kingpin criminals and femme fatales to a Californian high school. So our protagonist is a mop haired teenager, a heavy who he dispatches in a parking lot tussle is the school jock, the femme fatale is an ‘it’ girl. It’s a unique take and one that nearly works, there’s plenty of charm and sparky dialogue and most of the film noir ‘stereotypes’ are fleshed out heartily enough – such as the school vice principal 'echoing' the police chief who constantly reads the hero the riot act. Some of the acting, however, is a little stilted, giving the impression that these are just kids doing there best in an over ambitious school drama production – sometimes it’s less like ‘The Maltese Falcon’ and more like ‘Bugsy Malone.’ Definitely worth a watch though.