Search found 1 match: Paul Dano

it's the coolest looking terminator movie in an age, tweaking here and there the mundane grime and clutter of present day kansas with a host of subtle futuristic flourishes that feel organic to the setting. as for feeling, let's just say rian johnson's debut brick gave us fair warning: a film in love with its own admittedly sharp script and deadpan tone, happy to ride on the back of that dreaded trio of adjectives "cool", "stylish" and "clever", empathy be damned. looper at least pretends to be empathetic, but its asshole protagonist's grand epiphany comes off the back of a racy shag and a couple of chats with a messed up kid and that just ain't enough, considering this is a guy who's just sold out his friend to the cruelest of punishments (for money, no less) and is apparently a stone's throw from being a future child-murderer (i was struck by how quickly the young joe cottoned onto the older joe's plan; it was a thought process far too familiar for comfort). his epiphany felt pat and convenient in this context, particularly when milked for hollywood catharsis via a reductive explicatory monologue.

after all, even assuming this ending does logically conclude young joe's character arc, it isn't a happy one. it proposes that self-sacrifice is the only escape from an endless cycle of destruction, the last bastion of hope in our godless world. boring to make it about one character's unlikely redemption then; better to tap into a grander sense of hopeless idealism, this tragic idea that in the face of endless horrors in our past and our future--in this bleak world of broken homes, crime-corrupted cities and gun-wielding tweens who just wanna be loved, a world where even the heroes are just a choice away from being killers of children--the morality of such acts is the only thing left to cling to.

instead, the only real emotion at the end is one of numb relief, and i've come to recognise this as arising not because joe's decision has made the world a better place, but because it's removed the stakes, as unlike in the gotham trilogy for example, none of this extends to the outside world and especially not to us. even assuming for a second that the kid is gonna grow up good now, it doesn't matter anymore either way, 'cause there's nobody left for him to hurt who we actually care about. it's so invested in joe that it may as well be a product of his egotistical mind, which reduces the film's final act into just another self-serving, empty gesture, providing at best a hollow, euthenising kind of satisfaction.

i continue to wait for a time travel movie to underpin the conceit with an appropriate level of horror and melancholy--sure, that pile of lockets in triangle had something to it, but fleeting moments seem to be the best on offer right now, the filmmakers more concerned with narrative mindfuckery than anything which resonates past the first viewing. despite intimations of a more human touch, methinks looper is no different; one amazing scene, in which paul dano's older self slowly disintegrates before our eyes as the younger self is decimated, is alone in the way it trembles with real anxiety.