Love of Looper

Ah Looper, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. A time travel thriller set in a dystopian near-future, where a hitman-of-sorts (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is tasked with murdering his future self (Bruce Willis), while simultaneously protecting a child the future self is trying to murder. Throw into the mix telekinetic mutations, a twisted love story and an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind type memory warp, and you've got one hell of a sci-fi mess. Yet, helmed by cult hero Rian Johnson, the pieces of this misshapen puzzle are handled with such ease that it's only afterwards you realise he'd been juggling chainsaws, grenades and crying babies.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Genre Killer

To begin with, the title is a misnomer. Not in the literal sense as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter does deliver on a bit of the ol’ uber violence, but in the expectation a title like that conjures. Taking an historical legend and filling in any blank spaces in his back-story with a ham-handed vampiric slasher really promises fun. Who didn’t instantly fantasize Abe Lincoln, beset with top hat and iconic beard, cleaving his way through beasts and spouting one-liners? Like the action films of old, where farcical titles like Die Hard 2: Die Harder delivered exactly what you expected: mindless fun. There’s been an unwelcome shift away from the tropes of your treasured seminal action flicks (granted this may have something to do with a certain day in September 2001), but that’s not to say the dynamic isn’t still fun, because that’s all it is. It takes an otherwise jarringly ludicrous scenario and makes it relatable and humane. It resonates with that pre-teen 90’s kid who gawked at the mind-numbing idiocy of explosions, sweaty shoot-outs and genuinely enjoying every minute of it.

Killer Joe and the Downward Friedkin Spiral

Watching Killer Joe would be bestowing director William Friedkin with the benefit of the doubt. Much of anyone's opinion on the man would be based on films like The Exorcist or The French Connection; films that have remained in the 'Greatest' lists since their releases. However, since 1973, he's directed some dozen, much more mediocre films, and depending on just how much you loved the aforementioned classics, Killer Joe probably doesn't make the cut.

Blog