Brick

A man gets a mysterious call from a former flame, and, thinking she's in trouble, he investigates. Everyone talks like they're in a hardboiled Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler novel. The schtick is, everyone's in high school. At times, it can be taken for an allegory of the side of life of teenagers that parents don't see, blown up writ large.

Everyone's got a "play." They say things like "quit your yapping" and "keep your specs on" and "that would only biff their play." They're tough lines to deliver, and sometimes it comes out bush-league, but it's gamely played by all. It's one of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's recent successes at low-budget, clever films, along with the respectable "The Lookout" and the criminally underwatched "Mysterious Skin." And co-star Nora Zehetner, of some "Heroes" episodes, was great in her role as the femme fatale whose angle he can't figure out

Seeing this in the theater, I missed what Zehetner whispered into Gordon-Levitt's ear at the end, but on video I could tell: she whispers "mother . . ." He tells Brain, his companion who looked on, that she called him a bad word. That fits. There really is no other swearing in this movie (that I remember), which, while I don't mind bad language, seems a worthy accomplishment and noble goal these days. And that word makes you look at Gordon-Levitt's character in a different light, which, if I watch it again, I'll keep in mind. He's like the main character in the novel "Red Harvest." He may be the hero, but he really is a bad "mother . . ."