Looper
I have been chickening out from writing a blogpost about this film for 5 days now. I was rather busy for two of them, but it’s typically not a good idea to avoid writing about it when so many thoughts have crossed my mind about it. It all comes down to the “Brick” thing. “Brick” is still amongst my favorite movies of all times, and even though I have rewatched the film in the meantime, sometimes I wonder if I would still love the movie as much if I rewatched it today. And how would “Looper” compare to it?
I saw “Brick” in theaters ages ago, and I just knew that for fair comparison, I had to do the same thing with “Looper”. (On a side note, I have never even seen “The Brothers Bloom”.) However, I come to the conclusion that I am incapable of comparing those two films. “Looper” is awesome but so, so damn different from “Brick”. Without a doubt, I really loved “Looper”, but just like I loved “Moonrise Kingdom”, it won’t appear on my favorites lists despite getting very, very close. “Looper” is another tough one. In so many aspects, it is better written, better acted and so much more interesting than “Brick”, but “Brick” has the unsurmountable atmosphere and nostalgy bonus. Movies like “Brick” are the reason why I started watching movies in the first place. That doesn’t necessarily make the movie any better than others (after all, “The Dreamers” was a movie like that too), but besides holding a special place in my heart, I want to still believe that “Brick” was something special.
With that said, I was glued to the screen in “Looper”, and it hit me on so many levels. I thought the scenes in futuristic Shanghai were ridiculous and silly, but apart from that, everything was exactly the way I love it – a suspenseful, dystopian sci-fi story with some great characters. I especially loved the little kid, and the scene towards the end in which his mother told him everything was going to be alright actually made me tear up a little bit. Much like “Brick”, “Looper” has so much humanity besides all that action. It will never be as famous as “Matrix” which is food for thought for wannabe philosophical teenies, but for a big budget Hollywood sci-fi flick, it’s so much deeper, truer, everything.
Of course there were various things that didn’t really make sense. (This one is a good point which I did not notice and which Rian Johnson conveniently explains.) Ultimately though, I do not care about it as much, as long as it does not propose any blatant, stupid errors. I also wasn’t really happy with the ending because I thought it was just too convenient. After seeing “Butterfly Effect” and its various endings, it is just obvious how “Looper” had to end.
It seems that Pip didn’t like the film as much as I did (which just means that I am obsessed with the movie and he “only” liked it), and if you are in that camp too, prepare yourself, because I will defend “Looper” with all my might. It’s the perfect movie! But “Brick” is more perfect. (Sic.)