I just saw Looper
Dec. 16th, 2012 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eaten_by_bearsOh, man. I don't even know where to start. That was the best movie I've seen in a really long time. It was original, for one. I haven't seen the premise gimmick or the central theme done before. It's really tight, too. There isn't one wasted scene, it's just beautifully put together. They knew exactly what they were doing when they made this movie. They know exactly how to draw you in enough to really hit you with the horror of it. I mean- when Old Joe kills the first kid. I think my heart stopped. Up until that point, I was rooting for him. I kept waiting to see if he'd actually do it. I couldn't believe that he did. And they linger on the kid's face for so long beforehand, he's just staring at the camera with these big, innocent eyes. It's terrible. I feel like most movies would go the lazy way and assume that including child murder at all would be enough to horrify you, but this movie really puts the work in to make you feel it. Ow.
Okay, what else? I'm impressed with how they handled the Old Joe/Young Joe thing. Between makeup and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's expressions and idk, making them stand on boxes/in holes as applicable, they really do get it to the point where you can suspend your disbelief about him and Bruce Willis being the same man. I mean, Bruce Willis has a jaw like a tomcat, you're not going to get away from that, but it never once took me out of the story.
It doesn't come close to passing the Bechdel test. All the women are defined by their relationships to the male characters. Specifically, all of them are mothers. Even Old Joe's wife, the one who's not literally a mother is pretty much a mother. "She saved your life! You took her love like a sponge. She would've been a great mother." It's made pretty clear. But I don't really have a problem with that, because it's pretty much just a story about one character. And it's masterful. And I mean, I don't think you could write a script that laser-focused like this on a female character like this one does on Joe and have anyone pick it up, and I have a problem with that, but considered on its own as one movie, I think it's perfect. Mileage will probably vary on this, but I didn't feel like the female characters were short changed. I feel like we saw them from Joe's perspective, like we see everyone, and they seemed three dimensional and human and concerned with their own lives.
That ties into what really made the movie for me. The central theme of mother-hunger. Just, everyone we see is lost and scared and misses his mommy. It's heartbreaking, especially for a big h/c addict like I am. There's a scene where Young Joe is sick and desperate and can't get up, and drinks from a sippy cup. Just, gah. I would've watched it for that scene alone. He goes to the prostitute he has a crush on when he's torn up about turning in his best friend (and man, what happened to Seth was horrifying. body horror/mutilation all over), and he wants her to stroke his hair. The fuckup Gat Man just wants Abe to tell him he did good. Old Joe wants to save and go back to the woman who loved him and took care of him. Poor Sid already lost one mother, and he's in constant danger of losing another. I just- I just want to give the whole cast a blanket and tuck them in.
It doesn't hurt that a lot of them are pretty, pretty men. My goodness. There are not usually that many young-faced, skinny, big-eyed, vulnerable looking men in one movie. I dig it.
It is also kind of cool that we can have an action star now who looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt. My boyfriend was pointing that out to me, and he's right. Dude kicks ass and doesn't need to look like Stallone.
They did a good job with explaining the time travel, imo. Just handwavey enough that you're not caught up on the details. And it makes sense that the POV character wouldn't understand the finer points of the technology. I did need to talk it through with my boyfriend before I got the timeline. I thought we were doing an in media res thing where we get the prologue, including Old Joe beating up Young Joe and running, then the ending, with Young Joe successfully killing Old Joe, and then we saw the middle, which was how we got there.
Apparently, the version where Young Joe manages to kill Old Joe is Old Joe's memory of what happened. That makes sense, because then we start in on him going to China and ending up being taken and sent back to the past. Young Joe stops either of these futures from happening when he kills himself. Old Joe can't come back in the past because he's not alive, Sara doesn't die, and Sid doesn't become the Rainmaker. I don't know if I clarified that for anyone reading, but I think I just clarified it for myself.
Okay, what else? I'm impressed with how they handled the Old Joe/Young Joe thing. Between makeup and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's expressions and idk, making them stand on boxes/in holes as applicable, they really do get it to the point where you can suspend your disbelief about him and Bruce Willis being the same man. I mean, Bruce Willis has a jaw like a tomcat, you're not going to get away from that, but it never once took me out of the story.
It doesn't come close to passing the Bechdel test. All the women are defined by their relationships to the male characters. Specifically, all of them are mothers. Even Old Joe's wife, the one who's not literally a mother is pretty much a mother. "She saved your life! You took her love like a sponge. She would've been a great mother." It's made pretty clear. But I don't really have a problem with that, because it's pretty much just a story about one character. And it's masterful. And I mean, I don't think you could write a script that laser-focused like this on a female character like this one does on Joe and have anyone pick it up, and I have a problem with that, but considered on its own as one movie, I think it's perfect. Mileage will probably vary on this, but I didn't feel like the female characters were short changed. I feel like we saw them from Joe's perspective, like we see everyone, and they seemed three dimensional and human and concerned with their own lives.
That ties into what really made the movie for me. The central theme of mother-hunger. Just, everyone we see is lost and scared and misses his mommy. It's heartbreaking, especially for a big h/c addict like I am. There's a scene where Young Joe is sick and desperate and can't get up, and drinks from a sippy cup. Just, gah. I would've watched it for that scene alone. He goes to the prostitute he has a crush on when he's torn up about turning in his best friend (and man, what happened to Seth was horrifying. body horror/mutilation all over), and he wants her to stroke his hair. The fuckup Gat Man just wants Abe to tell him he did good. Old Joe wants to save and go back to the woman who loved him and took care of him. Poor Sid already lost one mother, and he's in constant danger of losing another. I just- I just want to give the whole cast a blanket and tuck them in.
It doesn't hurt that a lot of them are pretty, pretty men. My goodness. There are not usually that many young-faced, skinny, big-eyed, vulnerable looking men in one movie. I dig it.
It is also kind of cool that we can have an action star now who looks like Joseph Gordon-Levitt. My boyfriend was pointing that out to me, and he's right. Dude kicks ass and doesn't need to look like Stallone.
They did a good job with explaining the time travel, imo. Just handwavey enough that you're not caught up on the details. And it makes sense that the POV character wouldn't understand the finer points of the technology. I did need to talk it through with my boyfriend before I got the timeline. I thought we were doing an in media res thing where we get the prologue, including Old Joe beating up Young Joe and running, then the ending, with Young Joe successfully killing Old Joe, and then we saw the middle, which was how we got there.
Apparently, the version where Young Joe manages to kill Old Joe is Old Joe's memory of what happened. That makes sense, because then we start in on him going to China and ending up being taken and sent back to the past. Young Joe stops either of these futures from happening when he kills himself. Old Joe can't come back in the past because he's not alive, Sara doesn't die, and Sid doesn't become the Rainmaker. I don't know if I clarified that for anyone reading, but I think I just clarified it for myself.
When the movie was over, I felt sick. It was a satisfying ending, it was a relief to see Joe redeem himself and do something selfless, but I was shaken. This is going on my list of movies I love, but will hardly ever be able to rewatch. It's rough. Good, and heart-tuggy in a way I can't resist, but very rough.
