By Anealla Safdar

Film: Looper
Year: 2012
Director: Rian Johnson
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels
Running Time: 118 min

“I don’t want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.” Wise words there from old Joe (Bruce Willis), a central character in Rian Johnson’s ‘Looper’ – the Californian director’s third feature film.

Opening Doha’s weekend is this likely seat-filler of a sci-fi thriller; set in 2044 (and sometimes 2074) ‘Looper’ is a dystopian story about crime, time travel and the impact of relationships on lonely people.

Even though transcendence of time is a key theme, Johnson doesn’t want you to ask complicated questions about how it all works. In other words, be like old Joe.

“The biggest challenge,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter, “was figuring out how to not spend the whole movie explaining the rules…then get past it and deal with the real meat of the story.”

Flashes of romance, at least four well-acted introspective characters, and spellbinding scenes you’ll miss if you blink enrich this action adventure.

Young Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), like fellow ‘loopers’, is a hit-man tasked with executing targets from the future. The loopers roam Kansas’ miserable streets with guns as long (and sometimes thick) as Bruce Willis’ thigh, but one day might have to suffer the ultimate embarrassment – killing their future selves.

An exhilarating score by composer Nathan Johnson – no relation to the director – drives the pace of several gripping moments. Also of note is the work of Japanese make-up artist Kazuhiro Tsuji (‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘Men in Black’, ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’); not only is he responsible for matching young and old Joes’ nose shapes with synthetic masterpieces, he’s also presented a first in Hollywood – aging baby-faced Gordon Levitt.

Some poetic dialogue, low-angle shots and thought-provoking predictions of what disturbingly familiar 2044 looks like, hoist this film out of the classic sci-fi genre. It’s not just gadgets and guns, there’s plenty of drama and intrigue too. And thankfully, even in 2074, Bruce Willis is still wonderfully cheesy.