Sep 28 2012

Looper

In the year 2072 disposing of a dead body is very difficult, so, when the mafias of the future need to make someone vanish they use the illegal technology of time travel to send their victims back in time 30 years where they are immediately shot and killed by someone known as a “looper.” The bodies of the departed are then disposed of leaving no trace. The catch being that in order to keep things quiet the mafia will eventually “close the loop” by forcing a looper to eventually kill their future self and dispose of their own body. Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a looper, and he’s just been given the assignment to kill his future self (Bruce Willis); but, before he can even get a shot off, the wily older version of himself manages to escape sending a cascading chain of events off course. Now it’s up to young Joe to stop his older self from making matters worse before mobster Abe (Jeff Daniels) catches them both and before the innocent mother and son, Sara and Cid (Emily Blunt and Pierce Gagnon), are killed in the process. Sounds confusing on paper, but well thought out time travel flicks are often hard to wrap your mind around at first; fortunately, writer/director Rian Johnson, has done a fantastic job thinking through the plausibility and accuracy of how such a possible scenario could come into being– revealing just the right amount of detail, carefully constructing suspense, and telling a well spun story to spark our imagination and ask “what if?” Gordon-Levitt and Willis seem to do a fine job blending into one man, albeit it’s really Gordon-Levitt mugging Willis here, but the two actually fit together nicely. Except for the prosthetic makeup for Gordon-Levitt, it’s actually distracting and really un-necessary. Once again Emily Blunt miraculously disappears into her character and brings her “A” game to the plate. And, bit parts from Paul Dano and Piper Perabo add some interesting colour. There are a lot of moving parts here, and the film does start to feel a little long in the last few minutes, still, this one’s worth the price of admission! Looper is rated R.


Sep 28 2012

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Based on the novel of the same name, writer/director Stephen Chbosky has adapted his coming of age tale for screen to create this gem. An antisocial freshman, Charlie (Logan Lerman), finds his crowd to run with when seniors and step siblings, Patrick and Sam (Ezra Miller and Emma Watson), take him under their wing. However, gaining confidence aside, Charlie still has a dark passenger that rides in his psyche and it could be his downfall. Surviving his freshman year, finding his first love, gaining a pillar of support in his English teacher (Paul Rudd), and facing his darker side just begin to touch the film’s core. While fans of the novel will of course have criticisms of what’s been left behind, Chbosky has gone through over a year of painstaking edits to shape the tale we see, all in effort to maintain the integrity and flavour of his original piece. As a first time director/screenwriter the future looks bright. Admittedly, while some scenes carry a sense of stilted language and perhaps could have been given a bit more attention, the spirit of John Hughes appears to have graced the set and given a blessing. Furthermore, if you were a high school student in the early 90’s, prepare for flashbacks (good and bad, HA!). This is no doubt a magic journey, doesn’t overstay its welcome, and delivers the goods over and over. Worth it! The Perks of Being a Wallflower is rated PG-13.


Sep 28 2012

Won’t Back Down

Jamie Fitzpatrick (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is a poor working class mother, struggling to make ends meet, all the while trying to get her daughter the best education possible. Nona Alberts (Viola Davis) is a primary school teacher at Adams Elementary where Jamie’s daughter attends school. Both are entrenched in the bureaucratic disaster known as the public school system and looking for an alternative. When an option to transform Adams into a more effective institution comes about, doubts are cast aside and the heavy lifting begins, but will the women have the time, and energy to make a difference? Inspired by actual events, the film takes a hard core, slanted, anti-union and ill-informed view of the education system of America. Inspiring in one sense, and great acting from the ensemble, but so impossibly stilted in its story, it actually serves as an example of exactly what labor unions in America are striving to get away from– out of date groupthink thugishness. If in fact this is how the teachers union of Pittsburgh actually thinks and acts, shame on them, I would suspect this is not the case. Ironically the film was cast with SAG-AFTRA actors and I’m going out on a limb here, but, I’d fathom a guess the Teamsters, IBEW, IATSE, and a few other unions all had a part in making this mess. And, all of this in the face of the national coverage over the necessity of union sports referees…. Go figure…this one gets an A for acting, but an F for story. Won’t Back Down is rated PG.