A Dark And Quiet Room

Sometime last week, we sat down to watch the movie Brick. I had first heard about it on NPR and had forgotten about it until I saw it in my local movie rental store. Since I’ve been working on my Dirty Secrets project, I’ve been reading a lot of noirish detective novels and watching a lot of noirish movies, so I was eager to see this one as well. The idea of a noir mystery set in a high school seemed unusual; indeed, I was expecting something on the level of a farce. But, even a good farce can reveal aspects of a genre, so I was all set.

I was so very wrong.

Brick isn’t a farce at all. Indeed, it’s a solid entry into the genre. To be clear, I have decided that I’d like to own this movie. I don’t purchase movies lightly, since renting is so easy, so I consider this to be high praise. Certainly, there’s a bit of self-referential humor, but the movie understands the moral core of the genre and holds the focus there. Greed, obsession, power, love, honor…these are at the center of the noir drama, and these are at the center of this movie.

Despite a particular image in the trailer (which didn’t end up in the cut of the movie that I saw), the film was surprisingly clean. It earns its “R” rating mostly on the immersion in the drug culture of this particular high school, plus some violent moments. The soundtrack is particularly good; you can find samples here, if you’re interested. In particular, listen to “Emily’s Theme”. It’s haunting in its beauty.

Recently, I figured out that I tend to judge art by how it affected my outlook on life. Do I think about the world differently because I interacted with this piece of art? Did it challenge me to broaden my views or to think more deeply about a topic? Do I live my life differently because of this artwork? By these standards, Brick was a gripping movie.

You see, once you filter out some of the hardboiled tone of the movie, you’re left with a situation that, sadly, is quite believable. My wife attended a public school in Erie when she grew up, and she said that many aspects of the story seemed very familiar. Sure, Brick was set in a rich high-school, as opposed to the poorer one that my wife attended, but the rich high schools in Erie had a worse reputation for drugs than the poorer ones. The more I watched the movie, the more I bought what I was seeing. This wasn’t an attempt to force a noir-style story into a high school for laughs. This was a serious noir-style telling of a very believable story.

In particular, as I watched, I found myself noticing the nearly complete lack of parents, or adults in general. Aside from the assistance Vice Principal and a brief appearance by the Pin’s mother (which you can see in the trailer), the teen-aged characters live totally independent lives. There’s no sense of belonging to a larger family, or even of having wiser adult friends who would understand the situation and be able to help. No, these characters live in their own world and are largely stuck solving their own problems with their own resources.

How sad.

All these people, rapidly destroying their lives, with no one to help them.

Crystal said that something clicked while watching the movie and discussing it afterwards. She realized that my sister and I had never lived separate lives from our parents. In contrast, her experience of growing up was one largely disconnected from her parents or, indeed, of any real adult oversight. Adults were to be distrusted and avoided. The result: violence and heartbreak. Of course, she also readily admits that the adults that she knew weren’t really worth heeding. Those that weren’t distant were often trying to be “cool” by being permissive. Again, violence and heartbreak were the result.

I want better for my children, both those that are mine by blood and those that God will bring under my care. I guess that means that I need to work on being close to my children without being permissive, being wise without being distant, so that they will come to me with their problems, and I will be able to help them.