Looper (Rian Johnson)

[Winston*]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276104/

[Winston*]

Damn. Sorry. Could a mod add a poll?

[Winston*]

What a cool movie.

[eternity]

I haven't seen a movie take such a huge dive in quality in the third act since Funny People. On the whole, I enjoyed it, and I was sure for a while that it was my favorite movie of the year. Too bad it (almost) completely falls apart.

[Watashi]

Winston, why do you fail at making threads? Do you want TGM to be mad at you?

[Boner M]

I didn't think it fell apart too much, but [

Show Spoiler

JGL's premonition and self-sacrifice was definitely a stretch... also, why didn't that premonition include Willis hunting the kid and shooting him after killing Blunt, too?

]

Everything until then is sooo good The blend of noir tropes is so deftly handled; hard not to geek out a little. Especially loved the first Willis/JGL meeting, the dialogue about the arm scrawlings, "Beatrix" etc.

[Winston*]

I didn't think it fell apart too much, but [

Show Spoiler

JGL's premonition and self-sacrifice was definitely a stretch... also, why didn't that premonition include Willis hunting the kid and shooting him after killing Blunt, too?

]

[

Show Spoiler

Couldn't JGL have got to Willis and killed him before Willis got to the kid in that scenario?


Was it ever made clear whether the Rainmaker was a bad thing for society in general, or just Bruce Willis and other criminals?

]

[Watashi]

Agreed with eternity. Was loving this until the film [

Show Spoiler

went all Akira on us

]

What's good is great though. That diner scene is so good, it's a shame [

Show Spoiler

that the entire third act had both Joes in different areas. The film worked best in that one scene where they interact with each other.

]

[Dukefrukem]

Need a poll here.

[Boner M]

[

Show Spoiler

Couldn't JGL have got to Willis and killed him before Willis got to the kid in that scenario?

]

[

Show Spoiler

Was JGL using the blunderbuss then? (with Willis at an advantage with another weapon?) My memory's pretty fuzzy but I thought JGL's premonition was predicated on the fact that he was helpless in that scenario.

]

[Sxottlan]

Agreed with eternity. Was loving this until the film [

Show Spoiler

went all Akira on us

]

What's good is great though. That diner scene is so good, it's a shame [

Show Spoiler

that the entire third act had both Joes in different areas. The film worked best in that one scene where they interact with each other.

]

Really enjoyed it, but agreed on both counts.

[Winston*]

[

Show Spoiler

Was JGL using the blunderbuss then? (with Willis at an advantage with another weapon?) My memory's pretty fuzzy but I thought JGL's premonition was predicated on the fact that he was helpless in that scenario.

]

[

Show Spoiler

The kid still manages to escape on a train in that scenario because he loses Willis in the canefield. So its not a stretch to assume that JGL could catch up with Willis before Willis is able to hunt down the kid, especially since Willis' can't really fight back against his younger self.

]

[Winston*]

[

Show Spoiler

I kind of liked the Akira stuff. Introducing telekinesis as if its throway sci-fi scenery and escalating it so that by the end it's of central narrative importance seems to tie in pretty well with the film's themes. Same thing with the blunderbuss range.

]

[transmogrifier]

[

Show Spoiler

I haven't seen the film.

]

[megladon8]

This was great. One of the best of the year for sure.

Loved the diner scene. Old Joe's lambasting of Young Joe for being selfish was given great weight with later events.

[megladon8]

Extended (and disorganized) thoughts...

Really loved this one and I feel it'll continue to grow on me with repeat viewings.

As with all time travel films it's impossible to examine the time travel bits without leaving myself confused, brain aching from the inherent paradox(es). But Johnson seems to have been aware of this himself - he knew it just wouldn't be possible to write a time travel story and have every single loose end tied up, every question answered. With Willis and JGL's conversation in the diner, Johnson breaks the fourth wall and asks the audience to just shut their brains up a bit and enjoy the story - it's not going to make sense because it can't make sense, so just watch it and enjoy it.

I quite liked the twists the story took in the last third, and it reminded me a lot of the best stories by writers like Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury - what feels like an insignificant part of this future world becomes an intrinsic part of the story, changing everything and everyone in the story. The reveal involving Dillahunt's character left the audience audibly gasping at our showing.

The child actor was also pretty darn good, exhibiting both a childish innocence and confusion, and an unnerving awareness. It worked, and I couldn't ask for more as I've often found child actors to be the weak points in stories like this.

While I loved both JGL and Willis, I still felt that JGL looked like, well, JGL with prostheses and make-up, not a young Bruce Willis. Once in a while, in a dimly lit shot, I was able to catch some uncanny similarities between the two (a look at his nose here, a shot of his profile there) but on the whole I just couldn't see past it being JGL.

But what we have here is a superbly crafted sci fi film with great performances from all involved, unusually strong and natural dialogue for the genre (techno babble kept to a minimum, people who felt real and three-dimensional), and a story that delivered both viscerally and emotionally.

Great stuff.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I was guessing that...

[

Show Spoiler

the young kid would turn out to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The timeline loosely matched up with the idea of him growing up to be 30+ and then traveling back in time. It would've required an amnesia of some kind, though, and, anyway, once the telekinetic stuff took center stage, my guess ceased to be an option.

]

Liked it very much, though. It seemed a little thin on initial viewing, but I'll be curious to watch it again. Certainly the

[

Show Spoiler

bloodied-face motif (with Cid and Old Joe) suggests some sort of link that merits closer inspection.

]

Oh, and

[

Show Spoiler

I liked the Akira development. I was impressed with how Rian Johnson managed to weave that in logically to the story. It reminded me of how Philip K. Dick could take two or three different sci-fi conceits and build a story that supports them all.

]

At the very least,

[

Show Spoiler

points for that hilarious scene when Old Joe takes out all of the henchmen, and then one races down the stairs and gets shot just immediately. I laughed louder than anyone in the theater at that one. Guy, what exactly was your game plan?

]

[Pop Trash]

I feel like Rian Johnson and I aren't simpatico. I liked this better than Brick, but he's a left brained filmmaker that probably writes and rewrites his scripts to make sure every I is crossed and T is dotted. I wrote this in a previous post, but my favorite time travel movies are things like the first two Back to the Futures and Donnie Darko where there is enough going on besides the time traveling (or in the case of the DD original cut: ambiguity if there is even time travel). In fact, that ambiguity is something people like PT Anderson, Malick, and Kelly (sometimes/sortof) have and Johnson could use more of.

This is pretty good, but I feel like Johnson isn't aware that it needs less of[

Show Spoiler

TK kid

] and more scenes like the one in the diner with Willis and JGL.

I also wanted to mention there are as many lens flares in this as Super 8.

[megladon8]

Was anyone else suspecting that...

[

Show Spoiler

...the fuck-up henchman who had apparently blown his foot off with his "gat", was actually Jeff Daniels' character when he was younger? Both Jen and I said that, in the scene where Daniels smashes his hand with a hammer as punishment, we expected Daniels to then have a "bad hand" or some such thing.

]

I was actually a little disappointed that it didn't turn out that way.

[eternity]

Was anyone else suspecting that...

[

Show Spoiler

...the fuck-up henchman who had apparently blown his foot off with his "gat", was actually Jeff Daniels' character when he was younger? Both Jen and I said that, in the scene where Daniels smashes his hand with a hammer as punishment, we expected Daniels to then have a "bad hand" or some such thing.

]

I was actually a little disappointed that it didn't turn out that way.

Everyone I saw it with thought that was the case, but I wasn't convinced. Now I know why.

[Pop Trash]

Why the hell would you do that to yourself though?

[Dead & Messed Up]

Why the hell would you do that to yourself though?

Prove a point?

[max314]

Full to bursting point with well-considered ideas, compelling characterisations, and sophisticatedly staged scenes, Looper nonetheless deflates somewhat in its second half as the film's asymmetric structure prevents it from reaching a truly satisfying catharsis.

★★★★★

[Thirdmango]

I liked it a lot. I love time travel plots anyways but this one was a little light on it overall. Good way to start out my day.

[Kiusagi]

I loved this movie. I wasn't too fond of the kid, however. Every time he spoke I felt my interest diminish. Still, one of my favorites of the year so far.