Brick

This is one of the best film noirs in recent years bar none; and it's set in high school, making it one of the most original too. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the lead, a comic actor smartly cast as a smart kid. But when his ex-girlfriend calls and she's in trouble, he might not be smart enough to cope. The trail to her leads through dealers, toughs, a couple of femme fatales, and 'The Pin', some kind of mastermind, and it leads to no place happy. This grittily shot, sharply written flick is slicker than most maybe too slick; sometimes it's hard to keep track. But 'Brick' is brilliant nonetheless, with nifty detective work and nasty fight scenes leading to a brutal emotional payoff, this is worth anybody's money.