"Looper is a clever, entertaining science fiction thriller that neatly blurs the line between suicide and murder. (...) Rian Johnson's third and most ambitious feature keeps the action popping while sustaining interest in the long arc of a story about a man assigned to kill the 30-years-older version of himself. (...) Probably the shakiest aspect of Johnson's original screenplay is what it asks the viewer to buy about the future: A mere 62 years from now, in 2074, time travel has become possible, but such a momentous breakthrough is limited to serving as a body-disposal system. (...) The biggest problem facing the makers of Looper is how to make the audience believe that the trim, long-faced Gordon-Levitt could somehow change so much in 30 years that he would look like the thicker-built and shorter-nosed Willis. The solution lay in altering the younger actor's appearance, imperceptibly at first, but gradually to morph his dark eyes into Willis' gray-green and to reshape his nose and eyebrows, either with makeup or digitally or perhaps both."
by Todd McCarthy in The Hollywood Reporter
"The exceptionally talented writer-director Rian Johnson is also a merry prankster who likes messing with heads. (...) High praise for the knockout teamwork by the two stars. (...) Gordon-Levitt, at the top of his game, has been fitted with prosthetics, including a putty nose, to better resemble the Die Hard icon. But the effort is unnecessary given the emotional bond the actors form, notably in a superb diner scene that tests Wordsworth's line "The child is father of the man." That's what gives this movie distinction. Lacing tremendously exciting action with touching gravity, Looper hits you like a shot in the heart."
by Peter Travers in Rolling Stone
"That loophole, big enough to drive a plot through, is precisely what makes Johnson's crazy idea work. (...) Complicated as it all sounds, Johnson paves the way with wall-to-wall voiceover. As in "Brick," the script's well-tooled lines are stilted enough to sound cool, and angled in the direction of comedy, relying on expressions less suggestive of a sci-fi future than they are of vintage film noir. (...) The two actors look nothing alike, of course, which wouldn't be a big deal, if Johnson hadn't tried so hard to force a resemblance, burying Gordon-Levitt's striking mug under prosthetics (the most distracting being an application meant to simulate Willis' unique beak) instead of simply trusting auds to care enough about Joe to see past the differences. (...) If the imperfect yet promising "Brick" teased an exciting new voice, then "Looper" suggests big things ahead."
by Peter Debruge in Variety
"Rian Johnson's "Looper," a smart and tricky sci-fi story, sidesteps the paradoxes of time travel by embracing them. Most time travel movies run into trouble in the final scenes, when impossibilities pile up one upon another. This film leads to a startling conclusion that wipes out the story's paradoxes so neatly it's as if it never happened. You have to grin at the ingenuity of Johnson's screenplay. (...) Think this through. If the loop is closed on you, did you never exist? Or did you live your younger life up until the point you kill your older self? "Looper," to its credit, doesn't avoid this question. It's up to you to decide if it answers it. Time travel may be logically impossible, but once we allow a film to use it, we have to be grateful if it makes sense according to its own rules. (...) The key is in his writing. "Looper" weaves between past and present in a way that gives Johnson and his actors opportunities to create a surprisingly involving narrative."
by Roger Ebert in Chicago Sun-Times
OSCAR POTENTIAL CATEGORIES:
- Best Original Screenplay
- Best Editing
- Best Sound Editing
- Best Sound Mixing
- Best Makeup
BUT...
the Academy tends to recognize only box-office sensations of the action/sci-fi genre and getting critical acclaim may not be enough to Looper. Plus, action movies don't tend to get screenplay nominations, specially if they aren't in the run in the Best Picture category, but it may be in the same vein of Memento...
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