Looper – Review

Early in Looper  a character watches his own extremities disappear. The scene is intense, shocking, among the most horrifying in recent cinema, and undeniably amazing. Looper has a sense of innovation and inventiveness that makes every new revelation pure enjoyment.

It’s rare that an American filmmaker would be so assured or brave but Rian Johnson’s true achievement here, as ugly, brutal and vicious as it is, is twisting the heroes so drastically that, for once, the two sides of the same coin face each other.

Granted, the film goes a little action crazy and plot holes appear, as they do in any time travel story, but there is so much to love that these slight miscues are acceptable. Although predictable, the movie isn’t about the future so much as the path which takes us there. And that path, like those of Moon and Children of Men, is what all 21st century sci-fi should follow.[subscribe2]