3. Brick (2005)
Rian Johnson's
Brick is arguably one of the best films of the 2000s, a white-hot neo-noir indebted to the masterful film noirs of decades past, such as
The Big Sleep and
The Maltese Falcon, while transposing the tropes associated with the genre onto a high school setting. With its old-school dialogue, evocative cinematography, and restrained, stoic approach, it is a true original, quite unlike any crime films that have emerged in the last ten years. Much of the reason for its success, then, is Gordon-Levitt's central performance as Brendan Frye, a social outcast who, upon finding his ex-girlfriend dead in a ravine, decides to start shaking things up and find out who was behind it. Every second of the film crackles with quiet intensity, and much of the credit goes to Gordon-Levitt, whose fiercely restrained performance is nevertheless imbued with plenty of nervous energy that explodes in brief spurts throughout. Riskily choosing not to exploit the actor's boyish good looks, instead decking him out in unfashionable glasses, unkempt hair and old clothes, he nevertheless returns nimbly to the teen angst that defined many of his earlier career choices, but does so in a way that is mature and extremely thrilling, what with the story's focus on murder and drug use. This is one of those rare roles where it's incredibly difficult to imagine anyone else taking the mantle now that we have seen him at work.