Looper

This mindbending time travel sci-fi singularity comes from breakout writer and director, Rian Johnson. He's best known for his remarkable indy film, Brick, and he has directed a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad, including the very memorable episode titled "fly". Now, I'm not going to tell you that time travel films are easy. Quite the contrary actually, they seem to be one of the most difficult genres to create seamlessly. I found myself questioning the logistics and the space/time continuum, but after a few minutes, I caught myself and asked the pivotal question, "who cares." Rian Johnson clearly didn't, as shown in a great diner scene between Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the young Joe, and Bruce Willis, the old Joe. It is made pretty clear that there are no tricky "rules" to the game of time travel.

Young Joe is a Looper, a hitman in present day 2044 who kills mob hits who are sent back 30 years from 2077. It's a bit complicated, but becomes very clear after about 10 minutes. The thing about being a Looper however, is that it is an expectation that you will do what they call "close the loop" sometime in your career which means killing your older self. In doing so, you are resigning yourself to living another 30 years, and are compensated with a generous retirement package.

Johnson creates a nice future that isn't too clever. Gas is at a premium, so cars are old and dilapidated. Poverty is rampant and people carry guns to protect themselves. Other than that, it's pretty tastefully done as a futuristic thriller. You are immersed into the world, which changes scenery beautifully between the urban decay and rural Kansas farmland.

The film essentially has two very distinct parts that are tied together through necessity. There is the gritty, dark city where excess of drugs, guns, and sex is a common part of life, and the Loopers trade in their silver bars for a liquid drug that keeps them high. Then there is the quiet, sunny, peaceful farmland. Johnson does a fantastic job of diverging the two to make the film seem almost epic.

Young Joe messes up his hit on his older self, and as he chases him down, the plot thickens with a very clever sub-plot that reveals old Joe's hidden agenda. It's really nicely sequenced with a satisfying ending, and legitimately isn't too confusing, especially for a time travel film.

As you may have noticed from the previews, one of the interesting decisions that Johnson made was to apply makeup to Gordon-Levitt for 3 hours each day to make him look more like a younger Bruce Willis. You get used to it very quickly, but for my money, I don't think they looked especially alike, except for the eye color match. That said, both actors were great choices for their respective roles, and the rumor is that Rian Johnson wrote the film with Gordon-Levitt in mind for the lead role. The allure of having Bruce Willis, a sci-fi veteran, on board was probably too enticing to pass up.

Bruce Willis is typical Bruce Willis with some great lines, and kick-ass action that we haven't seen since... The Expendables 2. OK, so it hasn't been that long, but he's in prime form as old Joe. A shooting rampage at the end is reminiscent of the Fifth Element, and seeing him go back in time is 12 Monkeys deja vu. He makes it fun, like early 2000's Bruce.

Jeff Daniels and Emily Blunt are the supporting characters, along with a short appearance by Paul Dano, who is turning into a great actor, albeit a bit strange looking. He will find a niche very soon and will be in Hollywood for a long time. The scene-stealer of the film however, is Pierce Gagnon, who can't be more than 8 years old. He's precocious and given an integral role, but his poise and screen presence is captivating.

My only complaint is that after the climax, the film just ends. I truly think that one more scene to kind of put an exclamation point on it and give the viewer some reassurance of the outcome would have bumped up the value of this already great film. The story is fantastic, the acting and casting is great, and it's just a fun action film all around. I hereby forgive Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Premium Rush. Go see this film. It's the best sci-fi action one of the year. 9/10.