Looper (2012) / US / In cinemas now / Written and Directed By Rian Johnson / Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Pierce Gagnon / 118 minutes
I could start off by giving you the speech about how we live in a sucky world where all the films are adaptations, remakes, comic book films, sequels etc. And then I could tell you about how Rian Johnson created an original film called Looper and low and behold, we can all restore our faith in cinema. Yes, yay for Rian Johnson. He did us proud. But isn't the kind of movie that should be restoring our faith in cinema by itself. It just proves to us that true cinema isn't dead, and there's still room for innovation.
Looper is set mostly in 2044, where time travel hasn't been invented yet. However, 30 years in the future, time travel has been outlawed, and is used by crime bosses. In their time, it is extremely difficult to dispose of bodies secretly, so they transport the bodies back to 2044 where specialised assassins called "loopers" kill and dispose of the bodies. However, the loopers themselves can be sent back to 2044, and then they kill the old version of themselves - "closing the loop" - thus ending their contract. So when Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is sent to kill the older version of himself (played by Bruce Willis), things should be pretty simple for Joe to kill him and live free for the rest of his life. However, the older Joe seems to be quite troublesome, and has come back to 2044 with his own agenda.
