Tag Archives: science fiction

Review: Looper (2 1/2 stars)

Posted by Dustin Monk on

Looper - the new film from Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) – is a future full of contradictions. From the sprawling metropolises to the farmhouses and fields on the outskirts, from sending captives from the future back in time thirty years to be killed by trained assassins who, in thirty years themselves, will be sent back in time to be killed by their younger selves, even between Young Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Old Joe (Bruce Willis), everything in this world is at odds with itself. It’s the most interesting part of Looper; unfortunately, it is also the least explored part of it.

The first third of the film is is not only visceral, it’s cerebral: it’s got guts and grit. Young Joe is a drug-addicted assassin with obviously questionable morals and yet one senses something deeper beneath the veneer.  The year 2044 is kind of shitty but it isn’t apocalyptic – there are good things and bad things just like now, but technology is cooler and some people, it’s been discovered, have telekinesis. Even Abe (Jeff Daniels), our true villain sent from 2074 to train and command the assassins, is a dangerously cool, smart, and intense Big Bad Bossman.

Eventually, a looper (as the assassins are called) must close his loop (i.e. retire), which includes the aforementioned killing of oneself from thirty years in the future, with the stipulation that you get thirty years of awesome. Well, Young Joe messes it up, and then something happens.

And then. Something happens.

The film switches gears and goes into full-on Hollywood mode. Instead of continuing with the cerebral, visceral atmosphere it had begun, we discover there is a Really Big Bad Bossman in 2074 who “legend has it, came from nowhere” and goes by the name Rainmaker. Rainmaker is closing loops. Old Joe has come back in time to kill Rainmaker when he is a little boy so no Bad Things Happen (i.e. Old Joe’s Asian wife who has no speaking lines gets killed even though it’s really really hard to kill people in 2074 because that’s why they send bad guys back in time to dispose of bodies but never mind Old Joe needs stuff to hurt about because reasons).

There isn’t much else to say about this film after the first third, but here a few things to ponder: 1) Why are there no female loopers? 2) There are three women in this film; one is a prostitute, one is a former slutty party girl, and the other is a nonspeaking Reason for Stuff; 3) The time travel in this movie is, as far as most time travel movies go, mostly sound (i.e. it is probably the least issue-y of the issues with this film) but it still makes little sense at the end (listen to the spoilercast for more on this).

Review: Robot and Frank (3 stars)

Posted by Dustin Monk on

Robot & Frank deals with memory and what it means to lose we are smartly and uniquely. Frank – played expertly by Frank Langella – is a former cat burglar: he did some time, got divorced, fucked up his kids, and now lives alone in a big house in the woods where every day is struggle as Alzheimer’s (or something like it, the film never expressly says that it is and this being a near-future sci-fi movie, it could be some other disease that is like Alzheimer’s) slowly destroys his memory. He goes to the library in town and flirts with the librarian, Jennifer (Susan Sarandon), having no idea that he’s done this many times before. In fact, the first scene of the film is Frank reliving his glory days as a cat burglar only to find he is robbing his own home.

Frustrated with having to drive ten hours every weekend to care for his ailing father, Frank’s son purchases him a robot helper. “It’s like a butler,” he tells his father. Frank names the robot Robot. At first, Frank his wary of his new living companion, but warms to the robot quickly. Robot is there to help Frank eat better, keep the house clean, and generally help him focus his life. How does this focus take shape? By returning to burglarizing, of course. First time writer/director duo Christopher Ford and Jake Schreier get inside Frank’s head and the chaos swirling inside him, but they also do a magnificent job of making Robot real and as flawed as any human.

If there are any flaws in this film – and there are not many – it is the “twist” near the end of the film, which was perhaps supposed to add another layer of depth, but actually took away from the emotional resonance the film had won up to that point. The final few scenes are also awkward, chiefly because of some inconsistencies in the world-building.

Ultimately, Robot & Frank is wonderfully unique film, being both heartbreaking and funny without going over the top.