Film Review: Brick (2025)
- Very Average Joe
- Aug 10
- 3 min read
Title: Brick
Director(s): Philip Koch
Screenwriter(s): Philip Koch & Chris Ryden
Studio: Nocturna Productions, W&B Television, Leonine Studios
Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 39m
Starring: Matthias Schweighöfer, Ruby O. Fee, Frederick Lau, Salber Lee Williams, Murathan Muslu, Sira-Anna Faal, Axel Werner
Tim (Matthias Schweighöfer) is a game programmer who lives with his long-time girlfriend, Olivia or Liv (Ruby O. Fee), in an apartment in Hamburg, Germany. (The film was actually shot in Prague, Czech Republic.) They have their issues. One morning, as Liv is about to leave for good, she finds a solid wall behind the door.
Despite the title of the film, it’s not the usual brick wall; it’s more like sci-fi hull panelling with an irregular “brick” pattern. They cannot drill through it and soon discover it has magnetic properties, amongst other things.
It is obviously the “closed world” horror-mystery-thriller trope, and the plot follows Tim and Liv as they try to escape. On balance, the tone is more mystery-thriller and not so much horror.
The wall is on the outside and the stairwell, so they can still break through the internal walls to other apartments. This allows them and the plot to literally move. And of course, they come across other people and through expositions, they and in turn the audience get more clues about what may be going on.
It is as good a premise as any, and the solid cast really tries to sell it. However, the story is not well thought-out. Thankfully, it is not a dream, nor are the characters secretly stuck in some reality TV show.
The wall is seemingly impenetrable; it has cut off the water but not the power supply. This makes much less sense when one finds out more about the wall, and even then, the questions of how and why are only simplistically addressed.
The initial stressing is a little forced. It is obviously alarming to find oneself walled in at home but there is no need to rush if there is no imminent direct threat to life.
The people Tim and Liv come across are not necessarily friendly. It is natural to be suspicious given the circumstances but if one is looking for an intense psychological thriller in this respect, then one will not find it. And it is not a bad thing that the characters can take a breath, put aside their paranoia and work the problem—no point forcing that either.
Of course, there is at least one “psycho”… except their motivations are not sufficiently clear. It’s just a token psycho because the plot needs one. And this token psycho also just happens to be some so-called conspiracy theorist. Yeah, nice one.
Visually, it looks fine but nothing special. The set designs and the colors are nice, it has the feel of a European production. It is lit and edited well, but there is a lack of style in the way it is shot. It is simply too conventional.
Overall, it is not a bad premise and there are a few good ideas in there. However, the story and the plotting are not planned out well. The pacing is mostly fine but it can be tighter by about five minutes.
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