ShOR 365: Looper

Photo credit: Endgame Entertainment

Science fiction is a difficult genre. Everything has been done before nine times out of ten. Time travel, space colonies, virtual realities, you name it and you’ll probably find a movie that’s tackled it. Time travel has always been an interest for me. Perhaps it’s because I’m a sucker for period pieces and most of the time, time travel movies appeal to that particular interest. While Looper doesn’t feature Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt going back in history to fix anything, it does go into the future and it’s a rather interesting and bleak future.

In 2074, time travel has been invented but it’s highly illegal and only used by the mafia and organized crime. Joe (Gordon-Levitt) is what is known as a “looper”. The mafia sends people they want taken care of back to 2044 where Joe kills them and disposes of the body. It’s a perfect system because, in 2074, the people simply vanish and in 2044, the body being disposed of doesn’t belong in the past for various reasons. Loopers earn bars of silver for services rendered, though when it’s finally time to “close the loop”, and the loopers unknowingly kill their older selves, they receive gold bars. When Joe encounters his older self (Willis), he’s drawn into a hunt for a child that will become an evil crime boss named “The Rainmaker” while also running from the mob who wants to kill him for not completing his loop. Emily Blunt also stars as Sara, the mother of Cid, the child who eventually becomes The Rainmaker. Both Sara and Cid are strong telekinetics.

In a way, this film is a little more cyberpunk than neo-noir but either way, writer, and director Rian Johnson proves that he has an understanding of time travel and how to manipulate timelines for his plot purposes. While Looper does present the audience with the possibility of a major paradox that even Doctor Who wouldn’t tackle, Johnson does so in a way that makes you think but is clean and sharp. I’m not even going to try to explain how he prevents paradoxes in this film but he does so quite well and shows just how capable he is at handling time and, as a result, science fiction.

This isn’t the first neo-noir film Johnson’s directed, his indie film Brick, also starring Gordon-Levitt, was the first but it’s obvious that he likes the genre. While many of the markers of noir are met here, it’s nice to see the genre melded and mixed with sci-fi.

Blunt stole the show in this film. Her turn as Sara, a powerful telekinetic and mother to an even more powerful “TK”, as they’re called, was a breath of fresh air. As soon as I saw her on-screen and she spoke her first line, I was in love. Blunt has a way of commanding the screen even though both Gordon-Levitt and Willis have been in the business longer than she has. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that she overshadowed Gordon-Levitt though they do both stand toe-to-toe very well. They have a great chemistry and I hope they’ll be in a film together again soon.

While Looper may be confusing to some, it’s definitely a film that you shouldn’t miss. It’s sleek, stylish, well acted, and well written and directed. Don’t sleep on Johnson as a director or a writer. He’s going places and it wouldn’t surprise me if one day he won’t be nominated for an Oscar for his directing.