Joseph Gordon-Levitt Can Act - Who Knew?

Who would have thought that Tommy from "3rd Rock from the Sun" would have real acting chops? Few young teen TV actors have been able to make the jump to the big screen successfully. Notable failures have included Gordon-Levitt’s mid-90s family sitcom counterparts, Jonathan Taylor Thomas and Zachery Ty Bryan of "Home Improvement." With surprisingly impressive showings in this year’s The Lookout and 2005’s Brick, Gordon-Levitt has proved that he may have what it takes to stick around in Tinsel Town, get his name to the top of a few billboards, and maybe even take home a golden statuette in a few years. With one or two more solid outings, he may even become nickname worthy, because let’s face it, writing out “Gordon-Levitt” a bunch of times is a pain in the ass. I vote for G-Lev.

The Lookout – 2 PB Jars

The Lookout came and went without much fanfare in early spring of this year. I added it to my Blockbuster queue after I read an article talking about how The Lookout’s script, penned by Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Minority Report scribe Scott Frank, had been considered one of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood over the past few years. Directed as well as written by Frank, The Lookout is a witty, engaging, and well-paced bank heist caper. The real highlights are the acting performances delivered by G-Lev as Chris Pratt, a disabled youth who has trouble processing sequential memories, and Jeff Daniels as Lewis, his blind, wisecracking roommate. Matthew Goode is serviceable as the bad guy (and a far cry from his prior prim and proper role in Match Point). Isla Fisher, of Wedding Crashers fame, is hot but largely forgettable as a femme fatale who is also one of the films few loose ends. The plot follows Chris as he copes with his disability by falling in with a group of thugs planning to rob the bank that Chris works at (imagine Memento combined with The Score). The heist goes haywire and Chris is in the middle of the action. Not quite Memento, but The Lookout is certainly worth a rental.

Brick – 3 PB Jars

After being pleasantly surprised by The Lookout, I checked out 2005’s Brick and was impressed to find that G-Lev’s performance was not a fluke. In fact, Brick was one of the most original and engaging films I have seen all year - I can’t believe I missed it two years ago. Brick takes a classic film noir plot, complete with gangsters, detectives, and femme fatales, and sets it in a suburban high school. The characters have names like Brain, Pin and Tug, and the dialogue is straight out of a 1930’s James Cagney flick. G-Lev is Brick’s protagonist and plays the hard-boiled detective trying to locate his ex-girlfriend after receiving a mysterious phone call from her. The most enjoyable part of watching this film was seeing the various plot twists unfold, so I won’t give anything away – just be sure to check it out on DVD, you won’t regret it.