brick

in this movie, Joseph Gordon-Levitt sets out to inflitrate the cool-kids drug ring at his high school to find out why his ex-girlfriend was murdered. the investigation leads him to a cast of interesting characters that include 'the pin,' Lukas Haas with highly protuberant ears and a brown wall-to-wall carpeted den that serves as his drug lair, the pin's mom, who cheerfully serves up cookies and apple juice to drug-dealing kids at all hours of the night and a host of aberrant youths who have all slept with his girlfriend. the theatre gave out a glossary of terms with the movie ticket that wasn't too helpful due to the lack of lighting during the show, but it did highlight the film's quirkiness. despite some moments of anxiety about exactly how indie this film would turn out to be, everything gets wrapped up neatly in the final scene. Gordon-Levitt was better in Mysterious Skin, but there are enough smiles and surprises to make this one worth watching.