Brick is smart -- perhaps too smart for its own good at times. But in the end, its affectations add up to entertainment.
– Tom Long,
Detroit News,
28 Apr 2006
rotten:
Alas, Brick, from writer-director Rian Johnson, isn't as clever as its conceit.
– Steven Rea,
Philadelphia Inquirer,
5 May 2006
fresh:
It's great to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Mysterious Skin) in the juicy role of a high-school gumshoe on the trail of his estranged girlfriend's killers.
– David Edelstein,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
12 May 2006
fresh:
Like the best noirs, Brick is a triumph of attitude, and there's no arguing that its brand of deadpan cool is precisely unique.
– Troy Patterson,
Slate,
12 May 2006
fresh:
The self-consciously mannered rat-a-tat-tat dialogue also mines a neat overlap between teen slang and noir patois, both of which can be indecipherable to non-initiates.