Cast and Crew:  Lukas Haas, Richard Roundtree

What It’s About:  Streetwise Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) scours the underworld (of high school drug dealers) in search of his missing ex, Emily (Emilie De Ravin).

Why Watch it Today?: Brick is disarmingly clever transposition of the beats of a Noir detective story from the adult crime world to a high school setting.  It’s the kind of story that couldn’t exist without the work of Raymond Chandler (born on this date in 1888).

Other Choices:  Prefer Noir to Neo Noir?  Raymond Chandler wrote The Big Sleep and adapted James M. Cain’s Double Indemnity for the screen.