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It is absolutely glorious when intelligent sci-fi not only re-emerges, but returns and flourishes with spectacular results. Tucked neatly into this technologically and sometimes extraterrestrial genre of film is time travel. While time travel films aren't always done right, when they are they make one hell of an impact; the "Back to the Future" films, the "Terminator" films, "Donnie Darko," "Time Bandits," "Twelve Monkeys," "Source Code," and the fantastic little Spanish film "Timecrimes" are just a few examples. Combine that potential with the impressive writer/director Rian Johnson and an incredible cast that includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt and you have one of the most anticipated films of the year on your hands with "Looper."
In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented but 30 years from now it will have been. After being labeled as illegal, the ability to leap through time is only available on the black market. People who criminal organizations want to get rid of are sent back to 2044 where hired guns called "loopers" dispose of them. Loopers make very good money and Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is living the good life. When a looper's contract nears its expiration, the mob sends back their future self who they then get rid of and have the next 30 years to live their life. It's called "closing the loop." But when Joe's future self (Bruce Willis) is sent back, his life is turned upside down.
While you may not be able to totally buy that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a younger version of Bruce Willis based on looks alone (even with the use of prosthetics), Gordon-Levitt does deserve credit for developing the ability to act like Willis along with similar facial expressions, mannerisms, and body language. Bruce Willis' character is a really interesting piece of the puzzle. The older version of Joe is committing some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, but his reasoning for it is just. As you're shown his back story, you understand what he's going through and almost find yourself rooting for him. He's like a villain with heart.
Emily Blunt is really fantastic. This might be the most straightforward and emotional that she has ever been in any performance. The addition of her son Cid (Pierce Gagnon) may make or break the film for you as it goes down a path that may find you comparing it to other films. The Cid character is an intriguing one though as his emotions are out of control, but his intentions are good and he's fairly amusing more often than not. While Paul Dano doesn't get a whole lot of screen time, it's amazing that that underhanded smarminess he's often associated with is still able to shine through.
This is Rian Johnson's best work by a landslide and that's coming from someone who absolutely loves his first two films. While the concept is somewhat familiar, it's always going in places you don't expect them to go. Seth's (Paul Dano) side plot is around the time your jaw will hit the floor. The ending is really magnificent, as well. It feels tragic on one hand, but extremely fitting on the other. While the soundtrack seems to kind of pick and choose its moments to really stand out, there are a few instances where it's emotionally overwhelming. It will only get better in repeat viewings and listens.
"Looper" is an astounding piece of cinema no matter how you slice it. Featuring fantastic performances from the entire cast, absorbing cinematography, and one of the most unique concepts for a film in quite some time, "Looper" is one of the most creative, intelligent, and unpredictable films of the year.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and writer/director Rian Johnson proved to be the perfect pair with 2005's BRICK. They're back together again in LOOPER, the story of a hitman who kills people sent back in time from the future. Joe's got a good life: drugs, babes, money. Of course, this lifestyle comes with a catch: one day, the person you're supposed to kill turns out to be your future self. This means you get to live out your remaining years (roughly 30) doing whatever you so desire. Of course, in Joe's case, things don't go according to plan; his future self escapes, on a mission to prevent the death of his wife, and now both Joes find themselves being pursued by ruthless killers.
LOOPER is stunning. Visually, it's a treat; the effects are impressive, the cinematography astounding. The action is slick and the dialogue is quick and intelligent, just what we'd expect from a Rian Johnson script. Perhaps the biggest surprise here (well, for non-Johnson fans, at least) is the caliber of acting. The supporting cast is impressive: Emily Blunt, Noah Segan, Garrett Dillahunt, and child actor Pierce Gagnon all shine, while Jeff Daniels and Paul Dano are especially memorable. Bruce Willis brings gravitas to the role of future Joe; he doesn't say much, but as with his best performances, he's able to convey quite a lot with his piercing gaze. Older Joe is a complex character, and Willis is able to play his single-minded obsession to commit atrocious deeds for sympathetic reasons.
But this is Gordon-Levitt's film. Sure, he has prosthetics to make him resemble Willis; but more to the point, much as Josh Brolin did a la Tommy Lee Jones for MEN IN BLACK 3, Gordon-Levitt has studied Willis's mannerisms and voice, coming off as a truly convincing younger version of the actor. And yet, the role isn't mere imitation; Gordon-Levitt proves why he's considered one of the best rising actors out there right now, bringing a haunting sense of pathos (not to mention cojones) to his role. Thanks to his performance, and Rian Johnson's script, LOOPER comes off as one of the most unique, memorable science fiction/action films in years. It'll go down as a cult classic, and maybe one day, simply a classic example of the genre.
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This movie is surprising in a lot of ways, mostly because it turns into something that you don't expect at all. (The structure of it reminded me of Psycho in how it completely shifts gears mid-way through.) Try to go in knowing as little as possible. The story goes places that are disturbing, intriguing and emotional. The performances are all strong, (Jeff Daniels is great as a tired mobster) and there is some of the best directing of a child actor I've seen in recent memory. The film is quite violent, but it never feels exploitative. They pick their moments here, which makes the screen violence meaningful and at times, terrifying. Even if you start picking apart the time travel paradoxes, the movie stays true to its own logic. There is plenty of great craft and art here to appreciate, check it out!
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*** This review may contain spoilers ***
".. I saw a mom who would die for her son, a man who would kill for his wife, a boy, angry and alone, laid out in front of him the bad path. I saw it and the path was a circle, round and round..."
I wanted to see "Looper" (2012) written/directed by Rian Johnson as soon as I read the first reviews about it. It intrigued me for several reasons. The critics and viewers praised it. The first two Johnson's films were interesting and original and I wanted to see his new work. I am a fan of the time travel genre. Where else does the hero sit at a table in a roadside diner facing himself, either thirty years older, or thirty years younger depending on which side he is sitting? Or where else rather clichéd phrase "he was in a deadly conflict with himself" means just that? And more. What does a man feel at gun point, with himself holding the gun, either thirty years older, or thirty years younger?
Another reason for me was Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the main character Joe, the looper. He is a convincing versatile young actor, one of the most interesting of his generation. For Rian Johnson, Gordon-Levitt is kind of mascot. Johnson made all three movies with him, and Joseph was a leading man in two. An interesting feature of Gordon-Levitt's role (Joe "closes the loops of time" working as an assassin for the Mafia) is how he based Joe on young Bruce Willis. He plays young Willis' onscreen tough guy persona that we so get used to identify with and root for, and he does it very good. Bruce Willis also plays an important role of aged Joe. If you guessed that Willis would be saving the world that got into a serious trouble you may be right. This is what Willis does in the movie well: saves lost children, city, country, planet, and the universe. In "Looper" Willis plays retired hit man, whom his crime bosses sent with a bag on his head from the future, 2074 to the past 2044, to get rid of him with no trace. What happens to him when he arrives to the past, who meets him, how will he try to change the past to save the future it's all in the loop, tied by Rian Johnson.
By Johnson's words, despite the fact that "Looper" was a time travel film, he was more interested in creating the human characters, in choices they make in a situation that was caused by travel from future to past. This film is about making difficult choice, the possibility of one person to change the course of history, and how far he'd go for it. Dedicated to the paradox of time, "Looper" mixes futuristic science fiction and dark noir known for biting dialogue and off-screen sharp voice in Humphrey Bogart's movies style. Johnson adds the stories of love, not the least the love between a child and his mother. As befits a film about the possibility of time travel, the focus centers on whether it is possible, knowing exactly how the future will turn, to change something fundamentally important in the past, to correct it, and how this change will affect the lives of everyone involved. It would seem that nothing new, original and exciting can come out of the time travel genre after Terminator 1 and 2, 12 Monkeys, The Butterfly Effect, and their granddaddy, Le Jetee that started them all? But Johnson did it and even without a big budget, not trying to make a future in his film looking like a futuristic super modern giant metropolis. On the contrary, not so far removed future of 2044 looks more like the abandoned and gloomy suburbs of big city, shaken to its foundations by deep economic crisis, where the power is already in the hands of large criminal groups that control the time travel and use it to effectively get rid of the enemies sent from the future.
Using the elements of the time travel genre, Looper goes beyond the borders. It asked interesting questions, and gave different answers. Rian Johnson, writer/ director, does not mind to break the rules of genres in his films. His films are more of stylizations, pastiches of genres he likes and interested in. The elements of genres are the building blocks, the bricks for him which he makes his films from. No wonder, his first film was called "Brick" (2005).
To create a smart, interesting, original stylization, a game of mind is not an easy task, and Johnson has the gift for it. His first two films, "Brick" and "The Brothers Bloom", were both intelligent, curious, but, rather, cerebral variations of films and books that Johnson likes. "Looper", his third, is also clever and gripping but what makes it the best of three, it's got heart in the right place. "Looper" affected me on a deep emotional level. "Looper", in my opinion is one of the best independent American movies of 2012. Being an independent filmmaker, Johnson is able to assert his creative ideas, but without super-budget. But I am glad that "Looper" did not look flashy and glamorous. It is more than just an eye-candy. It has a plot, intrigue, and the loop that it will close in a truly original, searing manner. While closing this loop, the film will answer the most important question can you destroy the source of evil, which will bring tragedy and death to the future, if you look at it right now, this minute and "you see it. You see a mom who would die for her son, a man who would kill for his wife, a boy, angry & alone, laid out in front of him the bad path. You see it and the path is a circle, round and round..." Would you change it?
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Time travel is possible but it is illegal to do for fear of changing the time line and thus altering future events. In the future criminals have a difficult time killing their enemies as everybody is traceable and the disposal of bodies is impossible. The solution is to set up an organization in 2044 (the past) that you can send your victims back to and have them immediately terminated so they cannot change the future.....
This is a good storyline with a deep Sci-Fi thriller built into it. I won't ruin the story but just say that there are multiple twists and turns and the timeline implications will make your head spin. The plot and scenario of the story will make you think so hard about what is happening that you may want to back the DVD up a couple of times and review and understand the possibilities.
This is a deep movie and its imaginative script will keep you thinking of all the possible issues that the characters are facing. It is well directed and produced movie and its surprise ending will keep you thinking about the complications of what might happen.
My wife and I both like the movie and we rated it between a 4 and a 5 star film. I give it a 4 star rating and I hope you enjoy it.
