Looper

First off, “Looper” is one of those sci-fi flicks that feels just as punchy on a rewatch as it did the first time around. The set-up is dead simple but super effective: time travel exists, but only criminals use it to clean up their messes. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a low-rent hitman with a nasty habit of shooting people sent from the future. Bruce Willis plays, well, his future self. If that doesn’t make you at least a little curious, I don’t know what will.

Rian Johnson (before he went and divided “Star Wars” fans right down the middle) directs the hell out of this thing, making every scene tighter than a drum. The storytelling is lean without feeling rushed. The world building is somehow both grimy and totally plausible. You buy into the rules of time travel here, which is harder than it sounds, and the rules don’t get in the way of the characters actually doing interesting things.

What really sticks with me is the cast. JGL is under a ton of goofy prosthetics to vaguely resemble Bruce Willis, but he sells both the emotion and the cynicism without being over the top. Emily Blunt adds some unexpected grit and warmth to what could’ve been a throwaway part. Willis does cranky, desperate violence better here than in most of his recent stuff — you forget for a second he was John McClane and get lost in his pain.

Looper’s tone is more in line with “Children of Men” than, say, glossy blockbusters like “Inception.” It’s grimy, lived-in, and sometimes straight-up depressing. The violence hurts. There’s also this whole subplot about destiny and how people can mess themselves up, come back around, and still maybe change. It’s ambitious without getting pretentious.

If there’s a ding, it’s that the movie sometimes stumbles over its own cleverness. There’s a stretch in the middle that sags when it should build momentum, and some of the time travel logic gets fuzzier the more you think about it. A couple of emotional beats feel a little forced, especially the “love redeems all” elements. But the third act absolutely sticks the landing and doesn’t go for the easy, crowd-pleasing route.

Loopers’ strength is that it actually has an emotional core. It’s not just “cool premise: the movie.” By the time the credits roll, you get why these broken people do what they do, even if you don’t like it. Not every sci-fi film can pull that off.