WISE Score
Avg. Tomatometer
Dashiell Hammett goes to high school in this hyper-stylized, razor-sharp noir that treats teen drama like a blood sport.
7.179%
72
Brick is a miracle of a movie that shouldn't work but does. It takes the tropes of a 1940s noir—the femme fatale, the muscle, the world-weary detective—and places them in a California high school without a hint of irony.
It's not 'safe' in the sense of being lighthearted family fare, but for a teenager who is starting to get serious about movies, it's a foundational text. It’s smart, it’s cool, and it respects the intensity of the teen experience without being patronizing.
This is strictly for the 14+ crowd. Younger kids will be bored by the talky script and potentially disturbed by the cold, matter-of-fact depiction of death and drugs.
It's a gritty neo-noir featuring drug rings, high school underworlds, and the death of a peer. While it's not 'toxic,' its emotional landscape is intentionally cold and bleak.
A masterclass in genre-bending. It takes the hard-boiled detective tropes of the 1940s and drops them seamlessly into a 2000s high school setting without ever winking at the camera.
Rated R for a reason. It opens with a dead body and proceeds through scenes of drug distribution and realistic physical violence. Not for the younger crowd or the faint of heart.
Excellent for developing media literacy. It challenges viewers to follow complex subtext, archaic dialogue, and intricate plotting while demonstrating the power of visual storytelling.
Long before Rian Johnson was subverting whodunnits with Knives Out or taking on Star Wars, he made this low-budget masterpiece. Brick doesn't look like a typical high school movie because it isn't one. There are no sunny hallways or pep rallies. Instead, we get drainage tunnels, empty parking lots, and a basement office where 'The Pin' (the local drug kingpin) runs his empire like a corporate CEO.
The film is a love letter to Dashiell Hammett, the father of hard-boiled detective fiction. If your teen has ever complained that movies are too predictable or 'dumbed down,' Brick is the antidote. The dialogue is fast, the plot is dense, and the stakes are genuinely life-and-death. It demands that the viewer keep up, making it a great pick for a kid who enjoys a mental workout.
If you're looking this up today, you'll likely see a lot of buzz about the Brick phone-locking device that's been all over the news lately. While that little NFC gadget is great for curbing your screen time, it has absolutely nothing to do with this film. That said, this movie is so engrossing that it’s basically its own form of a 'digital detox'—you won't want to look at your phone for a second while Brendan is piecing the mystery together.
Get a personalized guide on any topic
