Brick is a 2005 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written and directed by Rian Johnson in his directorial debut, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

[3] High school student Brendan Frye discovers a note directing him to a pay phone, where he receives a call from his ex-girlfriend Emily Kostich, begging him for help.

She mentions a "bad brick", "the Pin", and "Tug" before abruptly hanging up, apparently afraid of a passing black Ford Mustang, from which a distinctively-branded cigarette is thrown.

An encounter with another ex-girlfriend, Kara, leads him to a party held by flirtatious upper-class girl Laura Dannon and her boyfriend, Brad Bramish.

Distraught, Brendan decides to investigate her murder, hiding the body at an undisclosed location to avoid police involvement.

On his way home, Brendan sees the black Mustang in a parking lot and tries to break into it, but is caught by the beanie-wearing thug, who turns out to be the car owner.

Brendan passes out from his accumulated injuries and arrives at the meeting late to find Dode demanding money to reveal who killed Emily.

He had discovered Hammett's work through an interview of the Coen brothers about their 1990 gangster film, Miller's Crossing.

He read Red Harvest (1929) and then moved on to The Maltese Falcon (1930) and The Glass Key (1931), the latter of which had been the main influence for the Coens' film.

Of the initial writing process he remarked "it was really amazing how all the archetypes from that detective world slid perfectly over the high school types".

Johnson estimated the minimal amount of money for which he could make the film, and asked friends and family for backing.

Although the film was shot in 20 days, Johnson spent a great deal of time beforehand refining the script and three months rehearsing with the cast.

[4] He encouraged the cast to read Hammett but not to watch any noir films, because he did not want them influencing their performances.

He was initially nervous working with a professional cast and crew for the first time but as soon as he started filming, this feeling went away and he had a good experience.

[1] For the telephone booth scenes, Johnson and crew filmed deep in the San Clemente suburbia.

The drain tunnel from the film is located just down the street from the San Clemente High School football field and goes under the freeway by the Pico exit off-ramp.

The basement was a set that they built, but the Pin's kitchen and living room still exists at the Blarney Castle bed and breakfast.

Johnson cited Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns and Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop (1998) as influences on his visualization of the film.

The garbage bag began over the camera and was pulled away during filming, as de Ravin walked backwards into the tunnel.

[8] Clever fades give the impression of time changes while smash cuts add tension to a scene in which the protagonist wakes up after passing out.

One particular scene, in which de Ravin's character floated toward the camera, used a green screen, but it was edited out of the film before its completion.

In addition to Johnson's score, it contains songs by The Velvet Underground, Anton Karas and Kay Armen as well as the big band version of "Frankie and Johnny" performed by Bunny Berigan and a full unedited performance of "The sun whose rays are all ablaze" by Nora Zehetner.

Johnson has confirmed that various elements in the film were influenced by Twin Peaks creator David Lynch.

The consensus states: "This entertaining homage to noirs past has been slickly and compellingly updated to a contemporary high school setting.

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also gave the film a positive review, explaining "A spoof would have been easy.

"[18] Stephen Holden of The New York Times commented, "Mr. Haas and Mr. Gordon-Levitt at least succeed in evoking the outlines of their characters.