Around and Around and Around and...

So I really don't need to say anything super specific about Looper. It's just plain awesome. Go see it and be amazed. But don't expect some high-brow time travel theorizing and endless scenes of technobabble or even super significant or complex emotional character arcs. It's simple on an emotional level, but its got such good actors inhabiting such over-done archetypes that they feel unique and original instead of retreads of cliches. The story is rather complicated in terms of how its time travel works, but all of its concepts are revealed and explained in such a wonderful mixture of dialogue, voice over, and visual action that it becomes surprisingly easy and, most importantly, fun to follow.

This movie could have been bogged down in some silly convoluted plot with some extra big twist at the end, but instead, the surprise that occurs is rather jarring in a different way- it makes sense. And it feels right. Sad. But right. Everything fits and whatever loose ends might theoretically exist (though I really don't think there are any) are so well hidden you become convinced that it all makes perfect sense. Most importantly is the lack of literal explanation for how the time travel itself works- Bruce and Jeff brush such discussion aside for the sake of the audience which would easily get bored. And along with this lack of explanation comes the unexpected side effects of the changes that Bruce causes, the odd quirks that most other time travel movies and stories ignore for the sake of a larger plot. Time travel tends to become oddly secondary in other science fiction films, mostly because writers fear that they'll get bogged down in the details and because the public just isn't interested in such things. By making the entire film about the time travel but on a small (or large, depending on how you look at it) scale we all can connect better to what's going on.

There's also a surprising lack of dialogue in many scenes. Everything seems visual. Even the occasional voice over feels natural and not intrusive on the film. There's a scene towards the middle of the film with Bruce (you'll probably know it when you see it) that from a story-telling perspective could have been utterly devoid of dramatic meaning within the context of the plot but which serves perfectly to define the singular reason and motivation for most of Bruce's actions. The scene is wonderfully acted and has not a single line of dialogue. These are the moments I love in films like this, largely unnecessary, but totally required to get people invested and connected.

This movie is raw and fun and thrilling and intellectually stimulating (but not in an artsy fartsy way).