Sleeper Recs: Looper

“Sleeper Rec” Rules:

• Not nominated for Best Picture.

• Under $200 Million U.S. Box Office.

• Regardless of genre, I’d recommend these films to almost anyone.

Year Released: 2012

Runtime: 118 minutes

Directed: Rian Johnson

Produced: Ram Bergman, James D. Stern

Starring: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Jeff Daniels

Oscars: None at all. Shame.

IMDb Plot Summary: In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent into the past, where a hired gun awaits - someone like Joe - who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by sending back Joe's future self for assassination.

Looper as a Sleeper Rec

The Story and Characters of Looper. Rian Johnson is a filmmaker who is hyper aware of audience expectations and goes out of his way to subvert them in his work. When he was conceiving of and writing Looper, he was far more interested in character than the mechanics of time travel. As a result, Looper plays out far more like a classical noir film with some Western influences – a very neat comparison could also be drawn between this film and The Terminator. We don’t have to worry about multiple time loops or going back in time to kill someone’s grandfather; Looper virtually takes place all in the present of 2044 and becomes a showdown between a handful of characters on a farm outside the city for its climax. There’s not much mind-bending work at play here, and the conceit of time travel is used as motivation rather than an overemphasized plot mechanic. Joe’s future self has come back to kill a telekinetic person who wreaks havoc in the future, and the present Joe decides to protect this boy – that’s essentially all there is to this film. By stripping away the complexities and unnecessary rabbit holes that other time travel movies tend to run right into, and adding criminal elements and a voiceover, Looper has more in common with noir classics and western classics like than any time travel movie.

By shifting the focus from time travel mumbo jumbo to character and tension, Johnson allows his actors to make his characters, and in turn the world he’s created, feel far more fully lived in. I have no idea why Jeff Daniels is in this movie, but he really works as Abe, a man who’s menacing to those who cross him and tender to those who are good to him, but never in an overly showy way. Paul Dano is terrifically pitiable as Seth, who fails to “close his loop” and must suffer the consequences. I also enjoy the bumbling, jealous, and insecure character of Kid Blue that Noah Segan created (if you want a classic comparison, try Wilmer from The Maltese Falcon). Emily Blunt is awesome as the initially no-nonsense, later intensely vulnerable Sara, who also has an air of mystery around her as she seems to understand the intricacies of time travel a little too well. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is carrying the film through his performance and narration and works well as the proxy for the audience by experiencing and reacting to the film’s events in the way that we expect to. It’s Bruce Willis that I think gives an even better performance; if this film is borrowing from The Terminator, could you imagine being sympathetic to the Terminator’s mission to kill Sarah Connor? Or experiencing tragedy and regret with him when he kills the wrong one? Willis brings the menace to be sure, but he also creates the most emotional scenes in the film, making him the most sympathetic villain in ages.

Technicalities. With this screenplay, Johnson set himself with a terrific foundation to work off of. Bringing a smoothly confident and impeccable level of craft, Johnson is in utter control of mood and feeling by doing the basics right. Want to build tension in a scene? Stage your characters looking right at each other, leave room in the frame for action to occur, then hold. When the action comes, emphasize the speed of it with a quick pan or roll but don’t cut until after the first shot gets fired. Under scrutiny, it feels like a simple approach to filmmaking, but in our era of over-cut, up-tempo action scenes the in-frame tension built up steadily between dynamically drawn characters stands out as refreshingly old-school. Also, whenever he employs a neat camera trick or close-up, the impact of them is doubled.

The Legacy and Meaning of Looper. Completely overlooked by major awards in its time, Looper is the ultimate “Sleeper Rec”. It’s almost always accessible on some streaming service or another, is an entirely original concept that both introduces new time-travel genre concepts while stripping away the expectations that the audience carries with them of what these movies “should” be. Additionally, Rian Johnson made perhaps the most audience-splitting (yet critically acclaimed) blockbusters of the decade with The Last Jedi and followed it up with the biggest “Sleeper Rec” of 2019 with Knives Out, so his earlier film has become even more of a must-watch. He’s become one of my favorite filmmakers who have broken out in the 21st century, and I can’t wait to see what original, expectation-acknowledging-then-subverting-then-raising movie he makes next.

John’s Highlight Reel

• Setting the stage. The cold open of this film is the perfect hook for the audience, and as Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s rather-casual voiceover kicks in against the backdrop of the very bleak-looking future, the view immediately wants to understand everything they can about the world. The voiceover is a fun element of the film, as Gordon-Levitt will not only explain what he’s seeing, but genuinely seems to be commenting on it in his head, in character.

• Seth. If you want to know how to mix genuine emotion, plot intrigue, exposition, and still create a dynamite sequence, then pay attention to the 10-minute stretch between Seth telling Joe about failing to kill his older self, early whispers of the Rainmaker from the future, and then follow it with Joe’s brutal betrayal and Seth’s brutal off-screen dismemberment, visualized by his future self’s limbs disappearing as he tries to flee town. That’s how you make a movie, folks.

• Understanding Old Joe/A Life in a Day. Even in a decade that gave us La La Land, this might be my favorite montage of the last 10 years. In 3 minutes, without a single word spoken, we become intimately familiar with Bruce Willis’ Old Joe in a sequence that is filled with repeated images (guns and needles getting larger, cash pile getting smaller) until everything is interrupted by the love of his life. It dazzles, moves impressively fast, and pulls at the heartstrings.

• The Diner. This meeting between the Young and Old versions of Joe is just fun, character-driven, tension-laden writing and directing from Johnson. They’re the same person, but feel completely different. There’s a threat of violence, but both characters are too curious about the existence of this meeting to make a move. There’s some diving into the laws of physics at play here, but it’s also quickly thrown aside. It’s just good stuff.

• Cid. The second half of the movie mostly shifting away from time-travel and shifting towards the intimate “battle” to make sure that Cid, an insanely powerful telepath, learns to control his feelings and his powers and become a good person is a bold choice, and one that I respect. There’s a little freakiness around this almost possessed child, and his killing of Jesse is some sci-fi/horror movie magic, but Johnson tugs gently at the heartstrings through the character and performance that Blunt inhabits.

• I changed it. The final gunfights of the movie, while quite small in scale, are quite reminiscent of the showdowns in classic noir films or Western movies, and is an initially unexpected, but in retrospect completely perfect way to end the story. The final shot of Sara stroking Joe’s hair, something he told a different character that his mom used to do, is a wonderful ambiguous note to add as this new classic of a film ends.

Other 2012 Sleeper Recs

• The Master. Since he emerged in the 90’s, Paul Thomas Anderson has not made a critically panned movie, but also never quite found a high level of mainstream success. His stories are usually deeply interesting character studies and has a gift for writing intriguing, funny, and psychologically challenging dialogue that he combines with a very pure form of filmmaking; The Master is no exception. Had this come out in any other year than when Daniel Day-Lewis played Lincoln, and Joaquin Phoenix wouldn’t have had to make Joker to earn his Oscar. Come for the performances, stay for a masterpiece in character-driven storytelling.

• The Place Beyond the Pines. If you’re looking for an interesting, emotional, original movie full of twists and turns, this is one for you. Ryan Gosling, “Sleeper Rec” king, headlines this story of crime, corruption, and consequence in the small town of Schenectady NY. This film contains incredibly natural (maybe too natural to be considered “showy” for critics) performances and dialogue and features some well-staged heist and getaway scenes while working as an exploration of how our actions have echoes far beyond our own understanding. Come for Gosling, stay for a constantly changing 3-act story featuring a superb cast.

• Moonrise Kingdom. Oh Wes Anderson, you hold a special place in my heart. A director with perhaps the most recognizable and obsessively controlled filmmaking style, his films also all work in the same quirky, charming, tender, bittersweet, humorous lane, and this one is no exception. Come for the sweet preteen love story and a stacked ensemble cast, stay for Wes at his most Anderson.