Repeat

Looper: written and directed by Rian Johnson; starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Joe), Bruce Willis (Old Joe), Emily Blunt (Sara), Paul Dano (Seth), Jeff Daniels (Abe), and Pierce Gagnon (Cid) (2012): Watching Looper for a second time, I note its metafictional nature as a movie partially about other movies. I

n one scene, crime boss Jeff Daniels tells protagonist Joseph Gordon-Levitt that the clothes he chooses to wear have simply been adopted from movies, not real life. We hear writer-director Rian Johnson talking to himself.

Important intertexts? Shane, Pale Rider (itself tied back to Shane), Casablanca, Get Carter (right down to the drugged eye-drops), Blade Runner, and the Back to the Future trilogy(!), the latter for its Electra complex as much as for its time-travel. Oh, and The Twilight Zone episode entitled "It's a Good Life," with its super-powered child who sends bad people to "the cornfield." Though here it's a canefield. It's a dandy movie. Clouds are also important. Highly recommended.