Saturday, here in Denver the high temperature was 81º F.
Sunday was 77º F.
Monday was 36º F and it SNOWED!

Conquering Carpal Tunnel Syndrome : And Other Repetitive Strain Injuries by Sharon Butler

Manifold: Time by Stephen Baxter

Brick stars an almost unrecognizable Joseph Gordon Levitt as a teenager named Brendan. Brendan gets a phone call from his ex-girlfriend that sounds like a bunch of lingo he doesn't recognize, and he knows she's in trouble, so he follows the clues that lead him toward exposing the world she got herself involved in. Honestly, that plot didn't sound very interesting to me, but after the many recommendations I've been seeing for it lately, I'm very glad I went to see it.

The dialogue is one of the first things that struck me. It harkens back to good old fashioned film noir private eye movies. If you go to the official website you can even read through the glossary of film noir terminology. The words sort of just slip out of the characters mouths effortlessly, yet everything they say is a mouthful. It's really quite effective, and sometimes even poetic.

I like that this movie wasn't black and white. The dialogue, acting, framing, lighting, and even sound suffice to create the desired tone of the film. It's just plain cool.

I can't reveal pretty much any of the plot since it exposes itself as it goes, but Gordon-Levitt has an amazing touch in leading us along his journey, and I also especially enjoyed the performance from Noa Fleiss, which was spot-on. The movie goes places I never would have imagined from the way it starts, and I loved that. I was actually sitting in the theater towards the end thinking, "Is the word 'riveting' too much of a movie review cliche?" It did take a little while for the film to ease into its skin, or perhaps a it just took a short while for me to adjust to its style, but the movie kept building in style and story until I was very much hooked.

Definitely the most stylistically interesting, creatively written, and overall well-crafted movie I've seen in a while.

P.S. It actually has more violence than I anticipated, so there's your warning.