Brick has many hallmarks of the classic film noir, such as the femme fatale (and an ambiguity surrounding who the real femme fatale in the film is), the hero’s descent into the criminal underworld and an underlying neo-jazz soundtrack throughout. This is not the colourful celebration of teenage life one would expect from a high school movie. Like the seedy underbelly of cities that was exposed in those classic noir thrillers, the high school and its surrounding community is portrayed as sparse and gloomy, with dark clouds often lingering above the empty expanse that Brendan is passing through. Yet despite its placement in the crime drama genre, Johnson would perhaps be happy to remind us why this is just as worthy a depiction of high school and teenage life as Dazed and Confused or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He says:

“Teen movies often have an unspoken underlying premise in which high school is seen as less serious than the adult world. But when your head is encased in that microcosm it’s the most serious time of your life.”

Like a classic Hollywood noir, the central killing really isn’t all that important. “How?” and “why?” are the questions that the protagonist searches for the answers to, yet in the scheme of things, these really don’t matter too much. What’s perhaps most important is that everyone in the film acts as if they are important. The story is never clear as it unfolds, and perhaps to some still doesn’t fall completely into place upon the conclusion of the film, but the journey has provided us with enough thrilling incidents and sharp dialogue that is doesn’t really matter anymore. But ultimately, the film ends on a bitter note, where nothing has really been gained from the investigation, and at what cost? It ends with an acceptance, an acceptance that not everything ends with a satisfying conclusion nicely wrapped up with a bow.

One of the central conceits of film noir is its attempt to depict the injustices of the real world. It is also the central conceit of Brick and one that all viewers should heed advice from. A noir detective story set in a high school doesn’t have any bearing on reality whatsoever, yet like Brendan who ends the film having to accept the disappointing conclusion to his investigation, we, the audience, have to accept this world as real — or at least we do for the duration of the film. In this regard, the film works as both genres. It succeeds at film noir through its nihilistic depiction of a world riddled with crime, and it succeeds as a high school movie with it’s coming-of-age story arc. On his investigative journey of self-discovery, Brendan learns about grief and the ‘adult world’ in equal measures.