Rian Johnson hit the big leagues this year with his inventive time-travel noir Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the same guy. If you haven’t seen it, make time.

Turns out, though, that Johnson’s first feature — also starting JGL — is absolutely worth your time and, in some ways, is better than Looper. Brick was made for less than half a million bucks back in 2005, and went on to win a special jury prize at Sundance that year. Levitt plays a high school kid named Brendan who’s a bit of an outcast. He had a girlfriend for whom he still pines, but she’s gone missing until one day when she calls him for help before promptly vanishing completely. The movie track’s Brendan’s ersatz PI maneuverings around the teen underworld as he pieces together the rest of the plot. It’s a pure homage to noir, complete with snappy, clever, and confident dialog.

For example, when Levitt’s character is brought into the vice principal’s office for questioning, we get this fantastic exchange:

VP: You’ve helped this office out before.
Brendan: No, I gave you Jerr to see him eaten, not to see you fed.

(The VP, by the way, is Richard “Shaft” Roundtree.)

Or, earlier, when hatching his plot, after his sidekick suggests involving the cops:

No, bulls would gum it. They’d flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes and probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one. But they’d trample the real tracks and scare the real players back into their holes, and if we’re doing this I want the whole story. No cops, not for a bit.

Or this beautiful bit, opposite the genre-obligatory femme fatale, Laura:

Laura: You’re quite a pill.
Brendan: Uh-huh.
Laura: Where are you going?
Brendan: Home.
Laura: Why did you take a powder the other night?
Brendan: Same reason I’m taking one now.
Laura: Hold it. I wanna help you.
Brendan: Go away. Look, I can’t trust you. You ought to be smart enough to know that. I didn’t shake the party up to get your attention, and I’m not heeling you to hook you. Your connections could help me, but the bad baggage they bring would make it zero sum game or even hurt me. I’m better off coming at it clean.
Laura: I wouldn’t have to lead you in by the ha…
Brendan: I can’t trust you. Brad was a sap. You weren’t. You were with him, and so you were playing him. So you’re a player. With you behind me I’d have to tie one eye up watching both your hands, and I can’t spare it.

See. This. Movie.

(Oh, also, this has been on Metafilter as well, which includes a link to Johnson’s own site, where he hosts the script and source novella for download.)

There’s a trailer on YouTube, too.