Looper Review

Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets ready to dispose of a future man in Looper

Looper

A+

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

Great original thrillers are really hard to come by nowadays; great original Sci-fi thrillers are now nearly impossible to find. This makes Looper, the brilliant time travel thriller from Ryan Johnson, a massive breath of very fresh air. Looper represents the best sci-fi has had to offer since 2002’s Minority Report and the best original thriller since 2000’s Memento (and even that was kind of sort of based on a short story that one of the screenwriters wrote). Looper also represents an amazing start to what looks to be a promising fall film season.

“Time travel has not yet been invented. But thirty years from now, it will have been.”  So the premise of Looper is set up. Loopers, future assassins, are people who kill and dispose of people that people thirty years in the future want to be killed and disposed, as with new tagging systems thirty years in the future it is impossible to do so without getting caught. Once Loopers are no longer needed they are given a future version of themselves to kill along with lots of gold and thirty years to live in peace. Meet Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a young valuable Looper who, while makes a lot of money, is lost and is seemingly searching for a way to get out sooner or later. After helping then giving up his dimwitted friend Seth (Paul Dano) due to Seth not being able to kill his future self Joe is soon given his way out in the way of his future self (Bruce Willis) being delivered to him. Unfortunately for Joe his future self has other plans, prompting both Joes to go on the run from each other, and the criminal boss Abe (Jeff Daniels) who will track them down at all costs.

Looper is plain and simply a really tightly written thriller. Everything fits together in a logical, creative ways and there are no lose ends or plot holes that get left behind. It never follows a formula or structure similar to other more generic thrillers. Twists come in small doses throughout the film and who is the “good guy” is never clear. If you’re a person looking for the average game changing big twist or reveal at the end this isn’t the film for you.  Looper is also thriller with a clear ending that is justified and logical, a refreshing diversion from the many thrillers where the ending is the last thing on the screenwriter’s mind. No ambiguity or unnecessary cliffhangers to be had here only a beautifully crafted thriller with a beautifully crafted ending.

Time travel movies, or movies with a sci-fi concept at their cores, often fall one of two traps either over explaining their concept, or making it an under explained plot hole. Looper strays far away from these problems by making time travel prominent but never allowing it to be the crutch of the film. The film has a non invasive logic in regards to the time travel plot and never makes in undeveloped or in the way. It’s just another sign of how well thought out and put together Looper truly is.

The other fantastic thing is that the plot and twists never get in the way of the characters and emotional links. Every character in this film is developed and has a real emotional reason to exist and take part in the plot. This is a part the great writing and a part the fantastic cast involved. Joseph Gordon-Levitt keeps getting better and better with every role and this is his best yet. Levitt has the challenge of never actually playing a definite “good guy” making this his most challenging role yet. Bruce Willis proves here that he can still act and act very well when he gets the right script. Jeff Daniels makes for a great villain (who seems to me kind of like Will McAvoy the mob boss, I was waiting him to say “I’m on a mission to civilize!”) who isn’t really all that much a villain as he is just an angry boss. The other supporting players (who I won’t mention in fear of spoilers) work very well here and there isn’t a questionable performance throughout the entire film.

Visually the film works very well. This is no sci-fi epic with a huge budget so the feel is a grittier more “realistic” depiction of the future (just like the amazing lower budget District 9 was a “realistic” alien film) that gives the film a unique edge. The film is shot very well with most of the time the camera being closer to the view range of the characters instead of a more objective view. The score is forgettable but does its job in creating a mood and atmosphere to go along with the plot and characters.

Looper is one of the best original concept thrillers I have seen in a long time, or maybe even ever. This film, unlike many of its bigger counterparts, feels like a film that will hold up upon second and third viewings as the plot is so tightly constructed and the logic so sound that it would be hard to pick away at the films structure and design. Ultimately though, Looper is a great film that represents the ashes of a dying breed of thriller and sets the fall film season off to one of the best starts possible; it’s going to be a real challenge to top this film.