Looper

I skipped this during Fantastic Fest, preferring the world premiere of Bring Me the Head of Machine Gun Woman over what was billed as an action shooter.  For the rest of the week everyone was telling me how wrong I was (or rather, how misguided the advertisements were) because Looper was a true sci fi film.

So what makes a film sci fi instead of action or horror?  Just because there's a piece of undeveloped technology that enables the plot doesn't make something a science fiction film.  True sci fi has on-the-horizon or pie-in-the-sky technology, sure, but it's not used to enable a shoot-em-up or some sort of slasher film.  Instead, sci fi uses the technology to poke and prod at the human condition, to see how human interaction and feelings react to new stimuli.  It's all about the people.

In these ways, Looper truly is sci fi.  Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is an executioner, killing those sent back from the future who need to disappear.  When it's time for him to "close his loop" - killing his future self (Bruce Willis) - he hesitates and things go awry.  Much of what follows is action chase, sure, as Joe tries to fix his mistake while his older self hunts the future mob boss who sent him back for his death.  That the boss is a young boy is troubling, sure, but is this fate fixed or is there another way?  In the end, Joe just can't be sure, and has to take what can only be a leap of faith.  It is right here that the film cements itself as the best of 2012 sci fi.

Looper
2012, 119 minutes, directed by Rian Johnson