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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 12/29/2012 : 17:17:02
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Pierce Gagnon was five when they shot Looper in which he plays a super-naturally powered kid whose future self, we're told early on, will dominate with a ruthless mob hand.
Someone's gotta take this kid out before he can cause lasting damage in years to come. Where he is, who are the people seeking him, and how the encounter evolves is the basis of the film.
Writer/director Rian Johnson has given us as intriguing a premise as any time travel tale can be. But, like the old joke goes, to get there, you can't start from here.
Where you do start, is an entree provided by Looper Joseph Gordon-Levitt wearing not only his Exec Producer hat, but a brilliant make-up job to suggest he very well could be the younger version of Bruce Willis. I could explain why a Looper's job is to eliminate certain people, and why that's important to the plot, but then, of course, I'd have to kill you.
Which apparently is what a lot of the future will involve. Beside, I don't think you're on my schedule of death.
But sci-fi anomalies aside - let's talk about Pierce. I ain't gonna shit you - the kid's fantastic. He's got powers, all right. Of course some credit must go to Johnson, but to shape a performance that convincing takes a bedrock of empathy and understanding - kid or no.
Every look is perfect, the emotions ring true, and his ability to nuance relationships - from distrust to terror to adoration and back again - well, it's just very fine acting indeed. In fact, I can't recall any cine-child who's done better.
As for the film, the title says it all. For however the themes wear sci-fi clothes, we're dealing with concepts of continuity and, as the song puts it - the power of love.
Johnson wisely knows that without it, sci-fi is just a series of what-ifs and sfx.
I won't say it's a great film, but the cast make it extremely watchable. Especially that kid.
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Edited by - BaftaBaby on 12/29/2012 17:25:26 |
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randall  "I like to watch."
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Posted - 01/11/2013 : 23:39:52
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I couldn't disagree more about J G-L's [prosthetic?] [digital?] makeup. It needlessly subtracted from a very hip script, constantly steering us ever closer to that "uncanny valley" where too-close-but-not-there digital renditions of humans become mildly repulsive. [See--well, POLAR EXPRESS.]
His "makeup" distracted me from the very first scene ["hey, is that him?"] and didn't ruin, but placed an unnecessary barrier between, a very smart story and me.
P.S. I hate sound designers who depend on dynamics to manipulate the audience. These guys enjoyed turning it down on intimate two-way conversations just so they could blow you out with a bomb or two. It's the sound FX equivalent of running black leader and then pounding against two frames of white. Effective. But cheap, guys.
P.P.S. You're right: the kid is great. But why did you give him away in your first sentence? |
Edited by - randall on 01/12/2013 00:12:03 |
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