Film review: ‘Looper'

Film review: Looper
January 1, 2013

You know I am a sci-fi and time-travel nut. Huge fan of all things Time travel. So here is an official sign I am not as hip as I once was: 

A review in today’s online USA Today proclaims Looper to be the home video find of the year; I wish I could agree with this. Sadly, I chose this film as our New Year’s Eve movie, and I, too, had thought it would be great, considering it has Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and time travel, all in one movie. But the violence in it, which includes scenes of torture, made me physically and emotionally ill and gave me nightmares - not a good way to welcome in the New Year.

One film that immediately comes to mind as comparable is A Clockwork Orange: a good thing for the current film and its director, Rian Johnson (who has directed episodes of Breaking Bad, so I should have been forewarned), but not for those of us who cannot abide scenes of rape and torture in a film. I have tried to watch A Clockwork Orange three times and have never gotten past the rape scene, and I’ve officially called off even intending to try to finish this film. 

Like the violent, sadistic and surreal Stanley Kubrick film, Looper is visually stunning and has an interesting and well-executed premise, but it is definitely not for the faint of heart or those of us who are very empathetic (like me). (I wince in pain when others describe painful accidents and dental procedures; no way I could be a medical practitioner of any kind.)

The Gannett critic said, “Looper - One of the better-reviewed, pleasant surprises of 2012, this smart and thoroughly convincing sci-fi thriller is just the sort of movie Hollywood needs to focus on making far more than it does.”

I would agree... If one can endure watching a killer stalk and kill children (this is especially unnerving after Sandy Hook), a demonic child, scenes of torture in which a “doctor” hacks off various essential pieces of a living man and then pours the lake of blood off a gurney, a head that actually explodes, flying bloody body parts, and almost as much blood as a Martin Scorcese film.

The special effects, plot, and particularly, the acting by Emily Blunt and Gordon-Levitt, as well as the demonic child played by 7-year-old Pierce Gagnon, are award-worthy, and Jeff Daniels, as a brutal gang leader in a role that is a departure for him, is convincingly heartless. Gordon-Levitt plays an assassin assigned to take down his future self, so some scenes of violence are obviously necessary, but much of the most graphic elements could have been omitted without damaging the story or the suspense.

I question why the director felt the need to include scenes reminiscent of the aforementioned A Clockwork Orange, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Gangs of New York, when the story is so strong that it does not need these scenes to keep us involved. 

If being a hipster means we are not bothered by extreme physical violence, torture, blood and the cold-blooded murder of children, then, I am officially uncool. So be it.