Looper is ultimately an optimistic film that boasts loads of ‘pace’, ‘action’ and ‘violence’ but with an existential and redemptive purpose. Bruce Willis has never wielded an array of weapons in a film rife with such personal and social conscience. As the younger Joe summarizes it with, “ I saw a mother die for her child, a husband kill to save his wife “ and a lonely boy with a pain too great not to strike back. Johnson marvelously casts a world amidst its apocalyptic overtones that seeks to understand the soul; can it be bought and sold with so many coins of silver or can it be awoken to a humanity where no sacrifice is too great for those we love.
Rian Johnson’s Looper will garner a great following from science fiction enthusiasts to be sure, but I urge everyone to see this uniquely clever and thought provoking film.
-Alfredo Romano