Looper Review

Rian Johnson broke out onto the scene with 2005's neo-noir film Brick, which introduced the genre into a high school setting unlike anything that's ever been made.  Continuing his tradition of inventive filmmaking, in Looper Johnson spins the time-travel genre on its head.  Reuniting with Brick alumnus/current coolest guy in the world Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the film takes place in 2044, where  time travel has yet to be invented. JGL acts as a hitman (called "loopers") for future mob bosses who come to his service when they need to dispose of someone without any evidence.  The target is sent back in time, where JGL immediately shoots them dead with a badass gun called a blunderbuss.  Of course, the target must be killed right away and can't escape or else the crime lords are gonna kick your ass; the twist comes along when JGL's next target is his future self (played by Bruce Willis), and hijinks ensue.

Rian Johnson's style can be hit or miss (he's directed two controversial episodes of Breaking Bad, one involving a fly and the other a certain dubstep musical number), but he always succeeds at bringing a unique vision to the screen.  In Looper, there's a very dark, realistic tone despite its sci-fi premise that reminded me a lot of Inception.  The time-travel itself was handled extremely well and the 'rules' of the movie are shown rather than explained.  I love that it doesn't insult the audience's intelligence, with more visual storytelling going on than straightforward exposition, and that it moves at a brisk pace.  Like any great film, I had no idea what was going to happen scene to scene.

A lot of people online are mentioning how JGL looks, but I think they pulled it off great.  The makeup crew tried to fix up his face to look more like Bruce Willis, and I think it added just the right amount of similarity without going into a "total transformation" territory like Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln. He also brings out a tough-guy furrowed brow and a gruff accent that made it totally believable that Willis and JGL were the same guy.  I also thought Emily Blunt was great too; she plays a southern girl in this and her heavy british accent is completely replaced.  Making short but substantial appearances are Paul Dano who plays another looper in the film, and Jeff Daniels, who plays JGL's boss.  I do wish that Dano was used more though, considering he is a somewhat 'headline' actor.

I'll wrap it up now, but really any true cinema lover needs to see this.  Like any time travel movie (except for maybe Timecrimes) there are some plot holes here and there, but the story, characters, emotion, and action are so well choreographed that it didn't bother me at all (in fact Bruce Willis even has a line like 'I'm not going to pull out straws and make a diagram of how this stuff works').  In my book, Rian Johnson can now be placed in the same league as a Chris Nolan; there's just a certain level of filmmaking going on here that I love seeing and wish there was more of in mainstream action movies and I can't wait to see what else he has in store for us.

Rating: A-