not falling down

Quick fanboy bit here, just for the benefit of Google.

There are three significant fonts in Brick, and I accidentally discovered all three of them in separate places. The block title on the posters is in Font Bureau’s Giza. The title that zooms away after the cold open is Todd Bushman’s Cipher. The front of the party invitation is MillaN’s Sand.

Okay, my real top ten:

1. Brick
2. Hackers
3. Sneakers
4. Punch-Drunk Love
5. Grosse Point Blank
6. Spirited Away
7. The Matrix
8. Unbreakable
9. Dancer in the Dark
10. Toy Story 2 (or maybe The Incredibles, this one is pretty close)

Honorable Mention: The part of High Fidelity where Moby hits Tim Robbins in the face with a telephone

You’ll notice that only two of these movies are older than ten years, and none of them older than twenty. If I get through even a quarter of my Netflix queue this year, this list will probably change a lot; I become more aware daily that I haven’t seen most of the movies that I would like, particularly with regard to noir.

Still, I’d say seven of the above are unassailable. (Consider Hackers pre-assailed.)

The Baxter is dropping Brick this week already! WHAT A SURPRISE. If you are one of the remaining few people I know in Louisville who didn’t get dragged to see it last Friday, let me know and we can go together. I will be seeing it again either tomorrow or Thursday.

Argh. For the record, I figured out why everybody reading this via RSS or LJ got the last fifteen entries today–I didn’t close a span tag when I edited the Brick rave, and RSS readers decided that the whole document was now a) different and b) invalid but readable. Sorry.

It took what, ten years? But early indications are that the #1 spot has finally changed hands. The fact is I know I can’t trust my judgment in the immediate aftermath of a revelatory experience, especially one I’ve been anticipating this much, so I’ll have to wait and see it again before I can make this official.

But I don’t think I’ll change my mind. Sorry, Hackers. Brick is probably the best movie I’ve ever seen.*

* Disclaimer: do not ingest this recommendation without salt. Consider my previous favorite, and that any low-budget indie high school western noir with its own slang dialect and a protagonist named Brendan is pretty much made just for me. Side effects may include shortness of breath and a desire for subtitles. See our ad in Nature. Brick: Thick As What All.

A secret source with the initials “David Clark” brought me first the rumor, then the confirmation: Brick will be showing at the Baxter Avenue Theatres this Friday, June 2, at 12:50, 3:10, 5:30, 7:50 and 10:05. Normally I’d want to see it as soon as I left work, but I’d also like to see it with Maria, who has to electrocute children until after 8:00, and anyway I bet this is a movie better seen after dark.

SO! If you live in or around Louisville and love either a) me or b) good nasty detective stories, please show up at the Baxter for the 10:05 show! It will be a party! I will buy your popcorn!

Okay. As you probably know, I want to see a movie called Brick. Brick is ostensibly coming to the Baxter Avenue Theatres, but not on the release date (May 26) promised by Brick’s distributor, Focus Features. That’s because May 26 is part of Memorial Day weekend, when Baxter will be busy filling seats for movies that “anyone has heard of” and that “make money.”

The evidence suggests that Baxter now has a print of the film, but is holding off on showing it for the aforementioned financial reasons; it doesn’t help that Focus decided Brick wasn’t doing well enough to justify more publicity spending, and is now recycling prints by moving them from one theater to another instead of making new ones. If there’s no perceived market for Brick in Louisville, Louisville may not see Brick at all.

Every time I’ve called the management offices of the Baxter to confirm or deny a revised release date, they seem a little startled that I’ve even heard of it, much less that I know it’s scheduled to come here. One guy actually asked “how did you hear about that? A rumor? Where did you hear the rumor?” I would like to change that. I would like them to pick up the phone and go “are you calling about Brick too?”

So: if you live near Louisville and you have any interest at all in the movie, it would be neat if you called the management office at (502) 456-4404 and casually asked hey, Brick? Is that coming here? Oh, do you know when? Cool. No need to call if you don’t live around here, and no need to wheedle, threaten or cajole. Just ping a little data against the collective consciousness of whoever answers the phones over there.

Don’t all do it today, either; pick a time within the next week or so and put a little note in your datebook. People on the LJ feed can call dibs on days in the comments. Whatever. This whole operation is very casual, except if you don’t do it you don’t love me.

I really, really want to see Brick. I am going to print out some flyers and hang them down Bardstown Road. I am going to continue talking it up here until you’re all sick of it. I swear, I am going to make an event on Facebook.

I would like you to see it with me, and I’d like us both to have the chance.

Messing around with my lightbox and some of the more striking images from the Brick trailer. This isn’t quite what I want yet, but it’s getting there:

There’s probably a Photoshop filter that does this automatically, but I don’t care. I’ll make a wallpaper or something out of this later, and I have more like it that I want to do. It is such a PRETTY trailer. Also, apparently it’s not coming out in Louisville this Friday after all, so I’ve got time to kill.

Man, I think I’d want to see Brick even if its protagonist wasn’t named Brendan. It’s cheap smart indie high school noir with weird slang! At last, people are making movies specifically for me! Next I want Michelle Kwan buy me a pony.

Brick has a tentative release date of April 28 at the Baxter. Anybody else up for it?