man, i have to say i am excited about 2006 right now. after what seemed like a down period in music, film, books, whatever — at least in terms of my experience of them, i hesitate to make sweeping generalizations for the rest of the world — i know that right now i’m feeling invigorated by all of them. i already went through a feast of moviegoing in the last few weeks, and i’ll get to a review of the latest and greatest of that set in a minute.

on top of that, i feel like, even if they aren’t all brand new, my ‘books to read’ list has blossomed by another handful of promising ones in just the last few days thanks mostly to powell’s and the bold type newsletter, and i can’t possibly read fast enough to keep up. then of course there are at least half a dozen albums, again, not all brand new, but recently galvanized as ‘must have’ through various interweb explorations, not the least of which is the new flaming lips album which comes out tuesday, and which is available for streaming in it entirety on their site right now. (excited!)… it seems much more soft bulletin in it’s oddness than the somewhat tamer yoshimi, which i am grateful for. you ought to go check it out. and on top of that, new stuff from the streets, the great b&s album… so yeah, i’m suddenly realizing i won’t have much spare time for a few months.

anyway, let’s finish out that glut of moviegoing…

brick – 5 stars

first off, you can only partially trust my opinion of this because as soon as i heard the word ‘noir’, i loved the idea of this movie without even seeing it. actually, i’ve been waiting to finally catch it since over a year ago when it played at sundance, and was so very very pleased to get passes to a sneak preview this week (for FREE, bitches. nyeah nyeah).

not to get all longwindedly analytical, but as a fan of bogey, chandler, et al, i mainly want to lay any fears you may have to rest at the idea of setting a noir crime flick in a high school setting. not only did it fall into a nice rhythm after the initial shock of hearing rapid-fire 40’s droll come out of the mouth of the kid from 3rd rock from the sun, but the trademark twisting and turning of a good detective novel were delivered on pretty successfully, even after a point when i thought it was going to let me down by being too obvious (they even fooled me, you see). there were all the key players in the form of the crime lord, the muscle, the authorities (the vice principal scene was classic, i tell ya!), and one hell of a femme fatale that has me thinking i really ought to be watching everwood. whew, she was smoldering.

i’d hate to spoil it for anyone by going on and on about it, even though i probably could for another several pages, but i’ll hold my tongue and just say if you’re any kind of a fan of the style, you really ought to check it out. the juxtaposition is totally captivating and entertaining and even at times bring in a few laughs when they give a wink to what they’re pulling off. don’t worry though, it’s not a farce, it’s a fully respectable gumshoe flick and destined to be a standout for the year, i think.