After the theft of copies of SAT exams from a principal's office, teenage reporter Bobby Funke sets out to unmask the thief. Bobby prints an article fingering Class President Paul Moore as the thief, shredding the youth's reputation. But as Bobby gets to know Paul's girlfriend, Francesca, he comes to realize he was wrong about Paul, so he sets out to unmask the true culprit.
16 May Assassination of a High School President (2008)
Mortarboards
I fell into “Brick” quite by accident. It was an accident that I discovered it, and knowing nothing about it, I found myself swirling in the story without defenses.
That is why I am open to similar experiences. This actually tries much the same thing: conventional noir embossed on a comically exaggerated high school universe. I like the structure of this better, because it pokes fun at the neonoir technique itself: the detective is a newspaper reporter and the mystery is not something that discovers him, but something that is assigned. He gets the story wrong, twice, because he is being conned.
The form has him as a voice-over narrator with untrusted views. He gets caught up in sex, as do we by deliberate manipulation of us both.
There are some interesting reversals, the most interesting of which is that there is a conventional assassination attempt with a rifle and all, but it is BY the high school president. By the end, we are pretty tired of the mystery because the discovery has no novelty or engagement. Instead, we are treated to an imbalanced, comic satire of high school life. The extremes are amusing and a few are clever. But the main mystery disappears under it.
We’ll see Mischa Barton in the future, as “the girl” in some big budget action movie. The camera loves her.
Posted in 2010
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
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