10 hidden gems on netflix looper8/6/2023 Watching a film explain it is like being in a complicated lecture with a professor who won’t explain his notes. Time travel involves many disciplines (philosophy, physics, etc.) that I have only limited knowledge of. A story that tries to explain time travel can have difficulty working. “Looper” establishes from the very beginning that time travel is possible and because of that, it never tries to explain it. While hunting down future Joe and attempting to close his own loop, many other loops are opened, and historical events are altered. Meanwhile, young Joe has no control over the reckless and unruly older Joe his future self escapes into Young Joe’s present. One Looper (Paul Dano) lets his older self go. Yet, despite an expiration date, Loopers never lose their free will. On the contrary, it feels very human, as if no one can know what death is like until they actually face it. It doesn’t feel like one of those inexplicable movie moments when you wonder “why would he hesitate now?”. However, when his future self (Bruce Willis) is zapped to him, he hesitates. You can see this in how Joe shoots every person that is zapped to him without even thinking. A Looper must act on the fly, never hesitate, and be prepared to die. I like films which hinge their character’s personalities on their careers, and only a certain kind of person is fit to be a Looper. This process is called “closing the loop.” I’m always a sucker for creative wordplay. After doing this, they get a big payday and get to live happily off of it for 30 years until they are kidnapped and brought back into the past. Because of how illegal time travel is in the future, a Looper must kill their own future self at some point. However, there’s a twist to being a Looper: your job doesn’t last long. Basically, the Looper stands in the field and waits for the body to be zapped to them. The mob sends people from the future into the past and it is the job of the Looper to kill them and dispose of the body. In the future, time travel is discovered and very illegal. It also occupies many different times in the future. It is not set in New York, Los Angeles, or Washington, but rather an unnamed metropolis and its outskirts in Kansas. “Looper” might be the first rurban (rural and urban) futuristic dystopia I’ve seen on film. There’s a lot to get through and a lot to sort out, but the fact that the ending pulls it off in an unpredictable way makes it work all the better. “Looper” must be the work of someone who doesn’t finish until every little detail is drawn out, and every possible subplot comes full circle. Perhaps the best way to break Hollywood out of cliche land is to play into the most typical of genre conventions and then turn them completely on their heads. Director Rian Johnson is exactly what movies need.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |