REVIEW: LOOPER
Style is attractive, but it’s rare that a film will back it with substance in the way that Rian Johnson’s Looper does. A sci-fi movie that kicks, Looper takes place in a near-future where time travel has not been invented, but will have been in the next thirty years. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a ‘Looper’ – a hit-man hired to eliminate targets sent from the future, hiding the evidence out of time and getting paid in the process. When his future self, played by Bruce Willis, is sent back to be assassinated and escapes, the hunt begins, and Joe must shut down future-him before his mafia employers are forced to neutralise them both.
Like all of writer-director Johnson’s projects (Brick; The Brother’s Bloom; a couple of Breaking Bad episodes), Looper is oozing in aforementioned style, and Johnson’s knack for the visual is apparent from the first shot. Looper’s future is low key, essentially a run down modern day with hover bikes, the film’s Kansas City setting giving it a retro noir vibe rather than a particularly futuristic one – all diners, grimy hideouts and VIP strip clubs – and this execution of a singular vision extends to the action sequences, fast-paced, well shot and inventive as they are. Though the film’s first half is arguably more enjoyable than the second – its urban noir aesthetic and fast narrative clip more compelling than the second’s softer, more languid farmland stand-offs – it’s all good stuff, and the strength of the earlier sequences makes any perceived later flaws easily forgivable, including an ending that veers close to saccharine but thankfully never gets there.
Though perhaps what is most refreshing about Looper is its scope; sci-fi films of this scale often work on a macro level, tackling end-of-the-universe, save-all-humanity type deals, whereas Looper joins recent smaller sci-fi movies like Moon and District 9 in allowing itself to focus in on a small group of characters and build an interesting and detailed world around them. Though the familiar themes of sacrifice and morality are lurking just below the surface, it is novel to see them presented through the film’s relatively unique prism, and Looper is certainly that: a unique film, and one that manages to continuously thrill, surprise and impress throughout its 2 hour running time.
Words: Josh Hicks
