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It just dawned on me this morning that Brick is probably the Bottle Rocket of this decade. I'm not going to be surprised if I run into 17 year-old kids in 2012 claiming that they think Brick is Johnson's "purest" film.

I imagine this movie is going to be up for some critical reassessment once Johnson has a couple more films under his belt. In the Teens P.T. Anderson (AKA The New Martin Scorsese) will probably be naming it among his top ten favorite films of the previous decade.

I think most people would make the argument that P.T. Anderson is the "the new Robert Altman". Martin Scorsese is a highly personal filmmaker and his best works reflect many aspects of his own life and cultural background. While I adore Anderson's films they are different in shape, usually relying painting themes on larger canvases.

As for Brick, it will probably be regarded as a fine first film and masterful genre exercise but Johnson is a very different filmmaker than Wes Anderson. Already with Bottle Rocket, Anderson was drawing very heavily on incidents and influences from his own life and continued to pursue those elements in later films. Johnson on the other hand is continuing to explore "the con" (maybe this makes him closer to Mamet than anyone else) with The Brothers Bloom. But all that said, it will be interesting to see him develop as a filmmaker.

I've been thinking about this for awhile, but I think it'd be great if Rian made another film somewhere down the line with an older version of the Brendan character.

Yeah, and I guess my thoughts weren't so much that Rian Johnson and Wes Anderson are that similar, just that Brick might inspire the same kind of hipster loyalty down the road that Bottle Rocket seems to have in certain circles.

While P.T. Anderson is quite a bit different from both Altman and Scorsese (perhaps his two biggest influences) I made the "New Scorsese" comment in anticipation of his foray into the "historical epic" with There Will Be Blood, something that Scorsese seems to be straying into a lot lately.

PT Anderson will probably never be able to do as much with as little as Robert Altman did in his films. His multi-character films aren't nearly as layered with activity, instead focusing on one or two individuals at a time. Altman could make heavy forays into characters without ever bringing them into the foreground or giving them lines. It's my opinion that Anderson is at his best with smaller numbers of characters, like he focused on in the films that currently bookend his creative output.

Only time will tell how film history will remember Brick. I'm just betting my chips that there will be reassessment and reposturing done by the film cognisceti somewhere down the line.

Out of the Past's latest podcast does a fantastic, indepth analysis of the film.

In case anyone was wondering, the UK Blu-ray (which features somewhat disappointing 1080i video) does indeed have a much better audio mix than the US DVD from Universal. There was an issue with dialogue being very low and everything else (a car whizzing by loudly, etc) being mixed very high - making it one of those "ride the volume buttons" movies. 100% better in the UK Blu-ray. In case anyone was wondering.