Thursday Movie Picks: Amateur Sleuths

 

For the 14th week of 2021 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We venture into the world of amateur sleuths as people who aren’t certified detectives who take on a case and find out for themselves without the help of the law. Here are my three picks:

1. Brick

Rian Johnson’s feature-length debut film is this stylized noir film set in a high school where a young man discovers his girlfriend’s body as he tries to find out who killed her and why as it relates to drugs and social cliques. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a role as an outcast who tries to find out who killed his girlfriend, it’s a low-key performance that has everyone talking in a certain language as it is told with a sense of wit and intrigue that plays into the suspense. Notably as it has a richness that seems lacking in a lot of films set in high school as it is a standard of what feature-length debut film should be.

2. The Nice Guys

Shane Black’s 2016 film set in the late 1970s in the world of porn and disco as it relates to the death of a porn star and a young woman on the run and leading this case is a loser private detective with a young daughter helping and an enforcer who takes not shit from anyone. Starring Ryan Gosling as the loser detective and Russell Crowe as the enforcer, it’s an offbeat buddy-comedy detective film that manages to be entertaining while giving both Gosling and Crowe the chance to be funny as well as cool. Notably as Crowe, often playing serious roles, is given the chance to relax a bit and show that he’s a really funny motherfucker.

3. Pokemon Detective Pikachu

A worthwhile family comedy that revolves a young man who travels to a Pokemon version of Japan following the death of his father only to find a Pokemon in Pikachu, with the voice of Ryan Reynolds, as they try to figure out what is going on. It is a light-hearted and fun that does have witty suspense but also intrigue as it relates to a mysterious substance and why this young man’s father was killed. Even as it has some twists and turns but also some funny moments involving Pikachu who is just adorable to watch.

© thevoid99 2021