What if modern-day high schoolers talked and acted like they were in a ‘50s hardboiled noir? It’s an intriguing premise for a short film, but it doesn’t seem like a gimmick strong enough to sustain a two-hour feature. And yet, with his 2005 directorial debut, Rian Johnson not only manages to turn a unique idea into a thoroughly engaging feature film, he actually transcends a potentially labored gimmick to produce something wholly original.
