Looper Review

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Bruce Willis. Does this mean that the kid from Brick eventually becomes Butch Coolidge?

Rian Johnson is one of the more intriguing under-the-rader filmmakers working today. Not only did he direct a smart and Hammett-esque mystery masquerading as a high school movie in Brick, but he also directed two of the best-crafted Breaking Bad episodes in "Fly" and "Fifty-One". After years of working with lesser known actors and being relegated to low budgets (though I haven't seen The Brothers Bloom, which had Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo and was made for $20 million), he gets a shot at the big time with the new time travel flick Looper, starring his Brick star Joseph Gordon-Levitt (coming off his awesome supporting turn in The Dark Knight Rises), Bruce Willis (surprised to see him here, after years of C-grade actioners and self-parody), and Emily Blunt (fresh off a comedic turn in The Five-Year Engagement), along with There Will Be Blood's Paul Dano, The Last House on the Left's Garret Dillahunt, and The Newsroom's Jeff Daniels. All of these actors had nothing but praises for Johnson's work here, with Blunt going as far as calling it the best movie she's ever done, and that trailer really did a good job of sucking me in. Then again, there are plenty of ways to screw up time travel in screenwriting, and the idea of Gordon-Levitt playing a young version of Willis sounded strange at best on paper. So, my verdict on Looper comes after this image of Gordon-Levitt striking a Walt Kowalski pose:

Bang. Bang. 2044 Eye drop drugs. Sex with 2044 hookers. Repeat.

In general, I thought Looper was superb. By the time I was sitting in the theater, my anticipation for the movie had risen to quite high expectations, and I watched, almost shocked, as Looper met virtually every one of them. The movie works on multiple levels; as a dystopian sci-fi story, as a time travel movie, as a small-town drama about a former criminal protecting a mother and her child from threatening forces, as a violent crime flick, as an examination of oneself, and as a rollicking good time of an action movie. Looper represent Johnson's unshackled vision, freed from budget constraints and other technical issues, and it delivers quite well indeed. Time travel movies often suffer from very conventional logic problems, such as "what happens if you meet your future/past self?" or "what happens if someone from another time period is allowed to run amok? How will this effect the course of events as we know them?" or "Are there adverse side effects to time travel?" What I love about Looper in particular is how it prefers to simply acknowledge these conventions and simply sidestep them through character conversation. That's probably why the scene between the two Joes in the middle of the film in the diner works so well, as it basically tells the audience "there will always be logic problems in time travel stories, no matter what we do, so just get past them and enjoy the damn movie!" In fact, that's basically how Looper as a whole works. Despite being set 30 years in the future in an unspecified crime-ridden city in Kansas, there isn't a whole lot of world-building here. Young Joe gives us a narration explaining how the time travel and looper system works for the crime syndicate, and then we're basically thrust into the world. It introduces you to its universe in the manner of Blade Runner or Inception, where it simply presents how its world works to you in midstream, and never looks back. We're meant to infer many smaller details of the film, such as the eye drop drugs that Young Joe is addicted to that are barely referenced other than visually until midway through the movie. Johnson doesn't waste time explaining every damn thing in the movie, instead introducing us to much of the world through the visuals, and it works. For this reason, one of the most fascinating sequences of the film is (at least for me) when Old Seth gets robbed of his fingers and limbs while attempting to escape through them getting cut off of Young Seth's body. It's chilling, darkly funny, and ably showcases the movie's time travel mechanics, without having to speak a damn word about them. But yeah, from a scriptwriting and technical standpoint, Looper is damn near perfect. Its gripping narrative loses a bit of steam in its last act, where it trades in its time travel story for creepy Damien Omen kid telekinetic hijinks, but even those sequences are effective, just less thematically relevant to the movie. And even in those areas, Old Joe's presence keeps the themes firmly anchored. It doesn't hurt that these well-drawn characters are brought to life so well by their actors. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is having a banner year here. After big steps toward breaking out into the mainstream in Johnson's Brick, (500) Days of Summer, Inception, and 50/50, his presence in The Dark Knight Rises, Premium Rush, and Looper this year basically solidifies him as a leading man. And Looper may be his most impressive performance yet, as it pulls him so far away from his other roles (where he usually played an earnest good guy type as seen in Rises and Summer or a slick sharp type as seen in Inception or Brick), and puts him in the shoes of a highly unsympathetic hitman drug addict who unwaveringly kills his targets for money and drugs. Young Joe is a seriously fucked up individual, and the film (and Old Joe) make no attempts to hide this. Much has been discussed about Gordon-Levitt's makeup job as well, to pull him closer to the appearance of Willis. In the hands of a lesser actor, it would have come across as a cheap, poorly executed gimmick, but Gordon-Levitt, with his growling Willis voice and his made-up dimpled face, somehow pulls it off. I actually buy him as a young Bruce Willis, and it's only helped by the montage where we are shown Young Joe's aging into Old Joe, which is so good that the transition from a haired Gordon-Levitt to a slightly balding to fully bald Willis actually feels organic. Willis also does great work here, awakening from his long sleep in self-parody (And yes, Live Free or Die Hard and RED count as self-parody. The last Willis role I can get behind as original or compelling would be his part in Robert Rodriguez's Sin City seven years ago) with his two roles this year, one here and the other in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, and he believably resurrects his action persona in Old Joe while also crafting a compelling, morally conflicted character. He wants to save his future wife from her murder at the hands of the goons of the mysterious Rainmaker, but knows that in order to do so, he'll possibly have to kill innocent people and even children, and the moral hell he goes through here is conveyed quite well. He also serves as a good example of a cleaned up version of Joe, freed from drug abuse and the reprehensible looper job through the love of his wife. But see, Young Joe goes through this much earlier, through his protection of Sara and her young son Cid, who may or may not be the Rainmaker that Old Joe is searching for. Emily Blunt is also great too, coming off as believably tough and hardened while clearly deeply loving and wanting to protect her son, in spite of his mistrust for her. Cid is also portrayed as oddly insightful and believably creepy, too, with some scenes directed by Johnson portraying him (as I stated above) almost like he's a demonic Damien-type kid, only saved by the love of his mother. The supporting cast is also outstanding, with Paul Dano portraying Seth's desperation over closing his loop well, and Garret Dillahunt coming off as cool and dangerous as Gat Man Jesse. Among the supporting cast, though, my favorite performance by far comes from Jeff Daniels as crime boss Abe, who comes off as cynical about the incoming future and acts almost resigned about his responsibility of managing the loopers. His sardonic sense of humor serves as ideal comic relief, and his mentor relationship with Young Joe shines through in the scene they share together. Nathan Johnson's score is serviceable but not invasive so as to not overtake the story, Steve Yedlin's cinematography is sharp but simultaneously dirty and grimy to portray the rather dilapidated nature of this future, and Bob Ducsay's editing beautifully puts together Johnson's story. Five months ago, I never would have predicted that I would pick Looper as the best science fiction film of the year (my pick then would have been Prometheus), and even the second-best film of the year I've seen up to this point (I can't put it above Rises). Yet, in early October, here I am. Looper comes very highly recommended for fans of Johnson, time travel, Gordon-Levitt, Willis, or basically anybody who likes to have a good time at the movies.

Looper gets a 9.5 out of 10.

The Blunderbuss may be my favorite movie gun ever.