Looper - Review

Time travel is one of those premises in storytelling that can collapse under its own weight and logic if not handled with enough tact. In a clever scene in Looper, the film both acknowledges the fragility of time travel as well as advises the audience not to get bogged down in the technical details. Looper is a film written and directed by Rian Johnson, known for Brick and The Brothers Bloom (neither of which I have seen at this point in time).

The year is 2044, the U.S. is in an economic collapse, and organized crime is abundant. In the year 2074, time travel has been invented but becomes immediately outlawed, but crime syndicates use the technology to dispose of targets in the past, as tracking technology in the future has made it virtually impossible to dispose of bodies secretly. The target is killed upon arrival by a “looper”, an assassin paid by silver bars attached to their victim. To tie up any loose ends, a looper will eventually assassinate themselves from the future, will be given a huge payday and thirty years to live a rich life before being sent back to be assassinated in the past, closing his loop.

Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is our protagonist. He reaps the benefits of his lifestyle, he’s efficient in his work, he enjoys the night life, and he looks out for himself and no one else. When his contract is up and he meets the future version of himself thirty years his senior (Bruce Willis), he fails to close his loop and a manhunt begins for both versions of him. What follows might be the most invigorating science-fiction film of the past decade. 2044 is a very believable, very poignant vision of our future, the United States economy has crumbled away, cars have remained the same aside from solar panel apparatuses fashioned onto them, phones have been reduced to a tiny holographic square with easy access, and ten percent of the Earth’s population is telekinetic.  In Joe’s future, there are stories of The Rainmaker, a man who is effectively closing every loop single-handedly, and Old Joe has come back to the past to murder the Rainmaker while he or she is still at a young age.

This being my introduction to Rian Johnson, I find myself wishing I had known him prior to this film as both his writing and directing prowess is something to boast about. Looper is very pleasing to the eye, with plenty of visual nuances which serve to have me commend the impressive cinematography. The film takes place in a dystopian Kansas and as dystopia goes, I have no complaints here. The basic premise is something that sounds very flimsy on paper, and the advertising for this film gives the impression it’s a typical action piece, and while it is that in a lot of places, it’s also a lot smarter than that.

Performances are as good as your going to get for this kind of subject material, and there’s even a child actor who won’t give you any PTSD flashbacks of Jake Lloyd, in fact, you won’t know whether to love or be frightened of this little guy. Bruce Willis, for once, actually looks like he’s putting effort into his performance, which we don’t often get these days considering the schlock he attaches himself to. Emily Blunt, despite being a British actress, pulls off a surprisingly flawless Midwestern twang. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, and while I don't feel the make-up applied to make him look more like a young Bruce Willis was necessary, it does give the performance its own sort of signature. 

Because my reviews offer no spoilers, it’s hard to discuss in gritty detail what makes this film so great without going into that territory, so in short, Looper is very much a film for everyone. A film student and aspiring filmmaker like me can enjoy it from every technical standpoint; aside from a few hiccups and a polarizing ending (I personally liked the ending just fine). General filmgoers can enjoy for both entertainment value while also experiencing something clever and innovative. It’s a please-all picture. 9 out of 10.