Movie Highlight: Looper

To keep this blog active, I will be regularly trying to highlight significant movies, shows, games, music and whatever. Just for fun.

This post, I will highlight Rian Johnson's Looper. Set in the near future, we follow Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hitman who eliminates targets sent back to him by a mob in the future. Things change when one of his targets turns out to be his future self. A lot more happens I do not want to spoil.

Right now, I am championing this film to hopefully get an Original Screenplay nomination at the Oscars. It has so much creativity and genuinely engaging elements in the script that even a few gripes I have are not enough to detract heavily. A very fun time travel movie.

Check out the trailer and a few standout scenes below to get an idea:

Looper Official Trailer (the first and best of the film's trailers IMO)

TK Clip (Introduces Looper's version of Biotics or The Force or whatever you want to call it)

 Seth's Death (Practically no blood or gore, but still rather shocking)

Aging Montage (Shows how Bruce Willis comes to be his version of the character for the rest of the film)

The Rainmaker Revealed (A very shocking scene for more than one reason **SOME SPOILERS Only see if you know or don't mind** )

Fireside Chat Artist's Statement

            When dealing with the stories of our lives, we want to convey them with the tone that best suits what is being shared. For the story I chose, I didn’t have any form of angst, drama or sorrow tied to the experience. The story is a genuinely happy moment in my life and I wanted to communicate that not only in my story telling but also in my visual. With that in mind, I created the presentation that was shown at the event.

            The idea for the stick figures came from a friend, but I think it actually really suited what I wanted to do. The story is a part of my childhood and it is a very simple story as much as I had a relatively simple childhood. In one way, it communicates the effect of memory. I imagined what it would be like if my fourth grade version of myself attempted to draw the events to the best of his ability. As I have demonstrated, my fourth grade self is no Rembrandt. In another way though, I wanted it to be genuine in its simplicity. This is supposed to be a very humble story and with that I wanted a humble presentation.

            As for the performance, I wanted the piece to be genuine yet leaning to a comedic bent. I didn’t want this to just make a testimony meeting out of it and I didn’t want any emotionally heavy stuff. It is a fun story to tell people and I wanted to make it fun. I rehearsed it several times to try and pinpoint lines I could tie specifically to certain slides. Funny comments, specific descriptions and other details were worked and reworked to make the flow of the piece more organic. In the end, I wanted the aim for something that would edify through happier emotions than the more weighty things.