Knights of Noir, or Chandler's Chivalry
netflixed:BrickSo yeah, I read stuff other than comics. Back in high school I read a lot of swords and knights and damsel-in-distress type fiction, which segued (unintentionally) into college, where I read a lot of hard-boiled detective, seedy crime, femme fatale stuff. Smarter people than me have made
smarter comparisons between the two, but even I can see where Raymond Chandler's Marlowe books are influenced by or are a commentary on the Thomas Mallory King Arthur books, and I've been a sucker for that stuff ever since.
Anyway,
Brick is great, whether you like that stuff or not. I know that crime stories set in high school have been done before (
Veronica Mars, which I have not seen, and to a lesser extent, Disney's
Fillmore!, which I like but that's more
Law & Order than Dashiel Hammett), but what I liked about
Brick is that it had a very Coen Brother approach to the material. It has a real
Miller's Crossing vibe to it -- dark, literate, full of wit and unexpected humor. Anyway, I can probably think of a ton of other semi-intelligent ways of saying I liked this movie, but anyway, there you go. I liked it.
