The face is intentional, of course: like a futuristic take on the surgerised celebrity lookalikes in ‘LA Confidential’, Gordon-Levitt has had a digital facelift to make him resemble Bruce Willis. In fact his character, gangland assassin Joe, is destined to become Willis, drop back through a portal in time and confront his ‘current’ self. Confused? If you pay attention, you won’t be.
The plot of writer-director Rian Johnson’s third feature is far too convoluted to explain: let’s just say it involves time travel, organised crime, future terrorism, death, loss, hope, regret and genetic mutation. But it’s to Johnson’s credit that, for the attentive viewer, none of these frantic plot contortions ever becomes bewildering: ‘Looper’ lays out a wealth of clever, intriguing concepts lucidly and with precision.
Not that any of these ideas is particularly new. Both the time-travel structure and a late-arriving, even more compelling subplot involving Emily Blunt as an isolated woman with a unique child are familiar from decades of sci-fi, notably ‘The Terminator’, ‘Twelve Monkeys’ and Jerome Bixby’s wonderful 1953 short story ‘It’s a Good Life’ (memorably adapted for ‘The Twilight Zone’).
But, as with his 2005 debut ‘Brick’, it’s how Johnson organises these elements that makes ‘Looper’ special.
Other New Titles
VIVA RIVA! (2010)
ARBITRAGE (2012)
MEAT (2010)
MENTAL (2012)
MY JOY (2010)
BEAUTY (2011)
JAYNE MANSFIELD'S CAR (2012)
OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES (2006)
OSS 117: LOST IN RIO (2009)
WARRIOR (2011)
HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET (2012)
THE APPARITION (2011)
SEVEN BELOW (2011
BAIT (2011)
WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE
GIRLS (2012) SEASON 1 BLU-RAY
BOARDWALK EMPIRE (2011) SEASON 2
LAST MOVIE, THE (1971)