I feel guilty for not getting around to reviewing Argo and Looper sooner, since it's been a few weeks since I've seen them and the details are fading in my memory, but hey...other stuff like hurricanes and work get in the way.
Argo
Ben Affleck's latest directing/acting effort since The Town is a real nail biter. Based on the true story of six American embassy personnel who managed to escape from Iran during the tumultuous 1979 revolution, Argo is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" movies. Affleck plays Tony Mendez, a CIA exfiltration expert who, after watching Planet of the Apes with his son, devises the hare-brained scheme to smuggle the embassy employees out of Iran under the guise that they're a production crew of a science-fiction film being shot in the area. The plan needs to be elaborately detailed and fool-proof, so Mendez gets the help of somewhat sleazy Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin) to guarantee that all of Hollywood is fooled into thinking this movie ("Argo", picked out of a pile of random scripts) is actually happening. Then Mendez travels to Iran and has the unenviable job of convincing the six stowaways at the Canadian prime minister's house to trust him with their lives and run with this plan.Perfectly cast with many familiar faces who disappear into their roles (Clea Duvall as one of the six embassy employees hiding out, and Victor Garber as the Canadian prime minister among them), Argo is really entertaining. Affleck sustains a palpable tension for most of the movie, particularly in the last third when the escape plan is put into action. Argo isn't my personal favorite of the year, but it's objectively a great movie and is definitely going to be up for some awards during Oscar season.
4 out of 5 stars
***
Looper
One must go into Looper prepared to suspend one's disbelief. As with any movie about time travel, the film is rife with plot holes. But if you're able to get past that, and not ask too many questions, Looper is a hell of a good time.
I was genuinely surprised by the direction Looper took. I won't give too much away, but I'll say that Emily Blunt's character, the homesteading mom Sara, who was barely featured in the previews, takes on a pivotal role in the movie. In fact, Looper is less about the mechanics of time travel and more of a philosophical exercise in how our current choices and actions affect those around us and our future selves.
The year is 2044. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a "looper" whose job is to arrive at an appointed spot at an appointed time and kill people that criminals in the future (around 2074, when time travel is invented and immediately outlawed) send back in time. It's a glamorous--if unethical--job that pays well (in silver bars!) and lets Joe and his fellow loopers party their asses off in a society where the gap between the rich and poor is outrageously large. [On that note: vote Obama on Tuesday!]
The only thing that sucks about being a looper is that at some point you will be required to "close your loop". Basically, the baddies in the future will send the future you back in time. You are expected to kill your future self with your giant blunderbuss, take a final golden pay check, and kick back and relax until 30 years from now...when you're on the other end of that blunderbuss.
Those loopers who "let their loop run" by failing to kill their future selves are in for a world of hurt, as Seth (Paul Dano in a small but memorable role) finds out. The loopers' bosses can't allow this to happen, so if your loop runs, you better find him and kill him or risk being killed yourself.
And guess who accidentally ends up letting his loop run and must spend the rest of the movie hunting his future self down?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt once again shows his acting chops as Joe, a looper with a little more foresight and motivation than the others. JGL wears prosthetics in order to look more like Bruce Willis (playing Joe's future self). I gotta say, he looked both creepy in an uncanny valley way, and really hot in a "butch Joseph Gordon-Levitt" way.
Another great actor in Looper is Jeff Daniels, playing the loopers' big boss, Abe. Daniel's plays Abe as basically an evil version of the Dude in The Big Lebowski--a man just as likely to offer you a drink as his is to smash your fingers with a hammer.
And I mentioned Emily Blunt earlier, but the real standout is Pierce Gagnon, who plays her son, Cid. This kid is un-frickin'-believable. Not *quite* as good of a performance as Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild, but pretty damn amazing. And creepy. Although most child actors are creepy. It's that uncanny valley thing again: they're talking like grown-ups, but they're obviously tiny children. Eeek!
I won't say anything about what happens in Looper because it's too complicated and spoiler-y, but I will say that it is totally worth checking out. It's slick and dark and brain-twisty. Kind of like Inception, but a little more rough around the edges. Like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's prosthetically-enhanced face.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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