Looper

Rian Johnson's Looper is one of those movies that are destined to be a future cult classic.It's not one of those films with gigantic budgets, directed by famous directors self proclaiming it as something amazing, as if the movie was the same caliber as the second coming of Christ would be. Like last year's Drive, Looper is the brainchild of clever indie director and a true labor of love. Driven by terrific story and strong performances, Looper is one of the best science fiction movies in recent years.

To summarize the plot would be an exercise of futility - basically it comes down to this - it's 2044 and our protagonist is Joe who is the titular Looper. Loopers are killers who are getting rid of people sent to them from the future. They have exact place and time given to them and all they have to do is to kill the target (always dressed the same and with a bag over his head), collect their payment and get rid of the body. Why is that necessary? Because 30 years later whenever someone dies, authorities know about immediately after the deed is done, so it's pretty damn hard to take care of the problem on your own.

Joe is living his life, spending a lot of time being high and selfish as young people often do. He is also planning an escape route - saving up some of the silver that isn't his and learning French so he can move abroad. But it all goes to hell when the target send to Joe to kill is himself....from the future. His older self escapes and when they finally meet to talk (in a scene that is destined to remind everyone of the conversation scene from Heat) older Joe explains that there is a terrorist in the future, called The Rainmaker, who in addition to slowly taking over the world has also been sending loopers back in time to "close the loop" - kill them and erase them from existence. Older Joe wants to stop him, younger Joe just wants his life back.

That craziness I described is only part of the plot - there are many people and story arcs in the film, including Paul Dano's Seth, Joe's friend and another Looper, the character whose plot, incidentally,  ends in the creepiest way I saw all year, and Sara and her son Cid - young Joe will seek shelter on their farm. Sara and especially Cid will turn out to be much bigger part of the game later on in the movie. The character of Sara adds a lot of mystery to the film, especially since she seemingly enigmatically knows who Loopers are and her son Cid....well at times it's like your own private Damien from The Omen minus the babysitter to help you out.

There are so many great things about this movie - first there is the story which is filled with twists and turns and that clever premise that fucks with your mind throughout the whole film - who is the older version of someone? What if someone is this person's father sent from the future? What if this character grows up to be that character? And since there are many tiny details, scattered everywhere in the movie and sometimes a single line of dialogue needs dissecting, the film is something you will be thinking of for hours, hell, maybe even days after seeing it - it took me 2 hours just to make sense out of Joe's comment about Rainmaker's prosthetic jaw, for crying out loud!

Also that is one ballsy movie. You have gruesome and disturbing torture scene. You have Bruce Willis stalking and killing kids. You have young child getting shot. You have a mother who is terrified of her kid. That is not something that is often seen in a movie that may as well been released in summer with blockbusters, since the trailers made it look like your typical fuck-all action film. Looper will keep you guessing, thinking and figuring stuff for yourself. And it leaves many things up to interpretation, throws in a lot of suggestions and it asks you questions only hinting at what the answers may be.

I'd probably give this movie 9, but since I spent the whole night on the darkest corners of imdb board for this movie and I still don't have everything figured out, it deserves the highest note. The film is like a labyrinth, just when I thought I got it, I thought of something that made more sense. What certain people, as with Prometheus case, would probably dismiss as the plot hole made by writers I consider to be lack of imagination on audience's part. Also I adore all the comments about how silly telekinesis was in the movie. It's a film about time travel, but when telekinesis appears, people start playing logic police? Really?

As a time travel movie Looper has the same issue as every other time travel movie - the "if you change the past then future will be different for everyone" paradox. There is one moment in the movie where in a matter of maybe 5 minutes we see two outcomes of the same situation. The thing is that if you don't see the first outcome, second outcome won't happen. It's a loop. It's a paradox. Show me one logical movie about time travel where you don't go "hey, but but it shouldn't be happening since THAT happened!" and I'll show you Idris Elba, naked, waiting to have sex with me in my room. Do you see the problem? Those two things don't exist. The explanations here are the same as always - multiple universes, different timelines or what have you. But that's why despite this fundamental problem time travel films are still being made - they are just too damn fun to watch and dissect.

The film has terrific universe - take out time travel and telekinesis and I can easily see all of this going on in 32 years The surroundings are only slightly altered and there are different gadgets which appear to be quite possible - such as flying motorcycles or drugs you apply with eye dropper - maybe it's going on already? It's also beautifully shot and the CGI is quite subtle (except for the movie's finale), it never looks fake or impossible but it still manages to impress you. All of that is aided by terrific soundtrack and honestly, the best editing this year - there is fantastic 30-year montage going on, but throughout the movie there are quick cuts that help us feel as if we are in the center of the events along with the characters as we see many things they see too.

Lots have been said about Joseph Gordon Levitt's make up in the film - he spend few hours every day in the chair while they did God knows what to him so he would look more like Bruce Willis. Initially I thought it was unnecessary but after the film was over I have to say that the make up really helped me buy the fact that they are the same person, especially since Levitt, who while shooting spend a lot of time with Willis observing him, adapted a lot of his mannerisms. It's really hard to see the sweet boy from 500 Days of Summer under all of this.

Levitt is doing great job here, being much different than in his recent roles - this guy is probably one of the most easily likable actors on the planet yet his character here is quite self absorbed and weak so it's tough to sympathize with him. Levitt makes it all so convincing and he has great on-screen chemistry with Willis who is just on fire this year - both his work in Looper and Moonrise Kingdom is some of the best he ever did. There are many impressive moments in Looper where Willis gets to show he is much more than action star, though he has some bad ass moments here too.

The supporting cast is equally impressive - we have always under appreciated Jeff Daniels as Joe's boss - Abe, who came from the future and recruits loopers - and lovely Emily Blunt who after years of wasting her talent away and playing different versions of the same lovable girl in boring and forgettable romantic comedies finally has something to do. Blunt's Sara is the soul of the movie - she is not perfect and she made mistakes in the past but she was willing to change her life completely to make sure her child  is safe. This is Blunt's best work since The Young Victoria and I'm hoping she will continue to deliver more performances as good as this one in films this great.

But the true highlight and the show stealer is Pierce Gagnon. That kid was 5 years old when they were making this film. FIVE! His performance is absolutely outstanding and puts, for example, Haley Joel Osment's Oscar nominated work in The Sixth Sense to shame. It's just amazing how well that child played his character and the character of Cid is crucial in the movie - he may or may not become a dangerous terrorist in the future and he is very scary and disturbing at times, but every time he started to cry and called out for his "mommy" I teared up.

The fact the large portion of the movie deals with the possibility of killing small child because of who he may become in the future is highly disturbing. There is tons of dark stuff in Looper and that's one of the things that makes the movie so unique - you hardly see directors and writers having actual balls to go where nowhere else dares in the world of films being carefully trimmed so they would get PG-13 rating. Looper is rated R and it shows, and not in nudity, not in violence or swearing - in the aspects of the story which are truly dark and unsettling at times.

Take what happened to Seth - what if they won't kill him? What if they will actually keep him alive in that state only to send him back in 30 years time to preserve the loop? How sick is that? Or what happened to little Cid when he was 2 years old - he saw his aunt, the woman who he thought was his mother literally explode and turn into bloody pulp. This is all very, very distressing. And that's the stuff I was left thinking about after the movie - there are plenty of disturbing moments that you see in the film - things like child covered in blood, husband witnessing his wife being shot to death and people killing each other in the street for no reason.

Looper is like a breath of fresh air - not only does it bring excellent story with it but the execution of it is marvelous to witness. Every single line of dialogue is necessary and I loved the fact that the director leaves things for us to figure out instead of packing the movie with tons of tiresome exposition dialogue. The film is very engaging and it's one of those movies that you will come back to, not only because it's great but also to see if you missed something the first time around.

Looper (2012, 118 min)
Plot: In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future self.
Director: Rian Johnson
Writer: Rian Johnson
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt