By the year 2074, time travel will not only have been invented, but swiftly banned, available solely on the black market for use by gangster's as the only clean way to commit murder. By sending their victim back in time 30 years to an isolated locale where an assassin (known as loopers) awaits with a shotgun, swiftly dispatching and disposing of his target. Now, a veritable force has begun to stage a coup and starts sending back all of the current loopers for termination. When a looper (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) comes face to face with his future self (Bruce Willis) and botches the job, he finds himself on the run from his dangerous employers and given the opportunity to correct the course of history. "Looper" is an imaginative visual wonder from Rian Johnson whose previous films were interesting curios ("Brick", "Brothers Bloom") but never achieved their intended levels of combined style and ambition, as is attained here. JGL is an actor who I felt has been given a lot of undue credit lately, is very strong here (although his nose prosthetic and Willis mimicry is somewhat distracting). As for Willis, following "Moonrise Kingdom", I think he is due some Oscar recognition, if only for the heartfelt diner scene here. Emily Blunt also turns up quite late in the film, but very welcomed nonetheless. Not all the elements of Johnson's ambitious story are expounded. I would have liked to know more about the looping process, and later on (with the appearance of Blunt) the film changes gears, takes on a much more lofty tone, and doesn't even bother explaining clearly the new developments. These, however, wind up being only minor quibbles, as all is handled in a stylized, frankly gorgeous concoction by Johnson, and brought home by several terrific performances.
