Loop the Loop

Rating: Null/10 (7 May 2015)

LOOPER is such a refreshingly good American film that it's almost possible to forget that it's essentially a B-movie. The plot is based on the idea that time travel will be invented in the future but will be criminalised, so that the only people to use it are the Mafia, who send their victims back in time to be killed in the past by specialised hit- men called Loopers. Once you accept that absurdity - and the presence of telekinetic powers - the film creates a simple but clever plot, in which one of these hit-men finds himself asked to kill his future, older self. He fails and soon finds the mafia after him, whilst his older self tries to hunt down the man who will kill his (their) wife in the future. The future is well imagined in low key ways - unusually for a SF flick, half the film is set in rural areas - and intelligent. What really sets it apart though is the cleverness of writer- director Rian Johnson, who elevates what ought to be a generic B- picture through a masterful use of music, writing, editing and image.