Friday, September 28, 2012

Looper: When Good Sci-Fi Goes... Good



I'm in a bit of a conundrum here.  The sole purpose of this blog was for me to be able to hopefully guide my three readers who actually visit the page to be able to intelligently select which film they decide to pay for.  I want to accurately depict a movie, give some valuable evidence as to why a movie is or isn't worth your time, and lead you down the path of good movie righteousness.  So, here's the predicament:  I want to be able to tell you that Looper is fantastic.  I want to tell you that it's in the top three best movies I've seen all year.  I want to tell you that it would be a grave mistake if you didn't go out and see this movie in theaters.  I want to tell you all of that... but I don't want to tell you why.

I saw the midnight premiere of the film knowing only as much as the trailer revealed.  I didn't read any reviews prior to viewing the film nor did I seek out any information about the film.  I wanted to be surprised and let the movie unfold without having a clue as to where it was going.  This is what I hope you will do as well.  Don't look at reviews of it.  Don't watch the five clips they have on imdb.com.  Don't seek out any information at all about the movie and you will experience true movie magic.

What I can tell you: Thirty years from the year 2044, time travel will have been invented and used by the mob.  Whenever the mob wants somebody dead and a body disposed of (dead bodies are apparently hard to dispose of in the future) they zap the victim back to 2044 to be killed and buried by Loopers.  Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the best Looper in the biz, until his future self (Bruce Willis) is zapped back for him to kill.  Joe knows that you kill your target no matter what, but it's a moment of hesitation from Young Joe that allows Old Joe to escape.  Now the mafia of the present is chasing Young Joe.  Young Joe is chasing Old Joe.  Old Joe is chasing Young Mafia who will, in turn, become Old Mafia and completely destroy Old Joe's life.  That's all you get!

Even now I feel like I've said too much.  I want this information to come from the brilliant filmmaking and writing of Rian Johnson, the director of another of my favorite movies, The Brothers Bloom.  What Johnson does so perfectly is defy expectation.  We've all seen the sci-fi movies where the hunter becomes the hunted (Minority Report, Repo Men).  It's almost a tired genre because we know how it's going to end.  We know where its going to go.  To be perfectly honest, I had no clue where Looper was going each second it was going.  Any minute something bad could happen, something crazy could happen, something unexpected.  It defied a genre.  And instead of ruining the best aspects of the film that need to be seen instead of heard, I'll clarify a few things.  One, don't let the casting of Bruce Willis mistake you into thinking that it's just another junky action flick, because it isn't.  Willis isn't just phoning in the role, collecting a paycheck, and moving on to a new set to do it all over again.  There is some truly extraordinary acting in this film.  From Joseph Gordon-Levitt essentially given the task of creating a character, but making that character the way Bruce Willis would play the character, to Jeff Daniels playing the seemingly apathetic yet truly evil mob boss, to Paul Dano as Young Joe's screw-up Looper friend, to Emily Blunt as the scared farm-dwelling mother.

The writing of the movie is even better.  While it is gorgeously shot, the beauty is in the complexities of the characters in the narrative.  Young Joe is haughty and selfish, while Old Joe is weary and learned.  Both possess the same violent tendencies, but one has overcome so much while the other is just beginning the trek into the dark depths of the future.  Johnson could've done what was expected and teamed Old Joe and Young Joe up (which, based on the trailer, I honestly expected), yet he doesn't.  The two have separate agendas that conflict with the others.  Young Joe knows that letting Old Joe live puts his own Young Joe life in jeopardy, so he wants to rid himself of his future self just as much as the mob (I swear its not this confusing in the movie). The film is also incredibly violent.  Joe (young or old) doesn't hold back when it comes to getting the job done.  I wish I could explain to you more, but to do so would be an injustice to the film.

Looper, after another viewing or so, could turn out to be my favorite film of the year.  It's honestly that good.  Just trust me on this one and go see it.  Go see it before you hear anything about it.  It's a fantastic film, from a fantastic filmmaker.  It's definitely worth the money you don't have to spend on a night at the movies.  So, get it up and go.  Stop reading and go.  Seriously.  Go.  Go!

A

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