Where Joe ends up, nobody knows
By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor
5/5
Take beloved action star Bruce Willis, indie darling Joseph Gordon-Levitt (JGL), and there’s a 90 per cent chance you’re in for a good time. So it should be little surprise that the reviews for their new film Looper have exceeded the 90 per cent mark on review site Rotten Tomatoes.
Looper is a sci-fi action film about time travelling that takes a surprising turn into existentialism. Sporting Willis-like facial prosthetics, JGL stars as Joe, a young assassin in the year 2044. Further out, time travel has been invented, but since the act is illegal, “loopers” are hired by mafia in secret to kill mystery men who will cause problems for them in the future. However, these loopers are also signing away their lives, and it’s destined that they will have to eventually kill their future selves—in this case, JGL’s Joe unto Willis’ Joe. When this day comes for young Joe, he makes the mistake of letting his target escape. From here, things only become more complicated than one could have possibly imagined.
[quote]…of all the films I’ve seen this year, Looper is the absolute best thus far.[/quote]
The film provides some rather thought-provoking material. Old Joe has made a life for himself, with a woman whom he never thought could love him, and he would do anything—and kill anyone—for her. Young Joe however repeatedly tells his older self that they are not the same person; the choices Old Joe has made are, for all Young Joe knows, not the same ones he himself will make. Every new experience the younger has that Old Joe didn’t, his memories are affected by it. This poses the belief that nothing is set in stone—in the world of Looper, or even our own.
One thing to note is that everything we’ve seen in the trailers up to now merely covers the first third of the film. Our two protagonists go through a great deal of life-altering experiences once they’ve crossed paths—experiences that prove to create some immensely disturbing content for viewers.
I won’t give anymore away, but I will say of all the films I’ve seen this year, Looper is the absolute best thus far.
