Arts

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Where Joe ends up,
nobody knows

By Angela Espinoza,
Arts Editor

Noooe

Tac beloved action
star Bruce Willis, indie
darling Joseph Gordon-
Levitt GL), and there’s a
90 per cent chance you're
in for a good time. So it
should be little surprise
that the reviews for their
new film Looper have
exceeded the 90 per cent
mark on review site Rotten
Tomatoes.

Looper is a sci-fi action
film about time travelling
that takes a surprising
turn into existentialism.
Sporting Willis-like facial
prosthetics, JGL stars as
Joe, a young assassin in
the year 2044. Further
out, time travel has been
invented, but since the act

 

is illegal, “loopers” are
hired by mafia in secret to
kill mystery men who will
cause problems for them
in the future. However,
these loopers are also
signing away their lives,
and it’s destined that they
will have to eventually kill
their future selves—in this
case, JGL’s Joe unto Willis’
Joe. When this day comes
for young Joe, he makes
the mistake of letting his
target escape. From here,
things only become more
complicated than one could
have possibly imagined.
The film provides
some rather thought-
provoking material. Old
Joe has made a life for
himself, with a woman
whom he never thought
could love him, and he
would do anything—and
kill anyone—for her. Young
Joe however repeatedly
tells his older self that they
are not the same person;
the choices Old Joe has
made are, for all Young

Joe knows, not the same
ones he himself will make.
Every new experience the
younger has that Old Joe
didn’t, his memories are
affected by it. This poses
the belief that nothing is set
in stone—in the world of
Looper, or even our own.

‘Round and round the Looper goes

 

One thing to note is
that everything we’ve seen
in the trailers up to now
merely covers the first
third of the film. Our two
protagonists go through a
great deal of life-altering
experiences once they’ve
crossed paths—experiences

that prove to create some
immensely disturbing
content for viewers.

I won't give anymore
away, but I will say of all
the films I’ve seen this year,
Looper is the absolute best
thus far.

 

 

Big things for the small screen

 

What fall sweeps have
to offer

By Lauren Paulsen,
Contributor

he last week of

September ended with
a bunch of brand new
shows: 11 to be exact. I
found myself sick in bed, so
besides keeping up with my
reading assignments, I had
8

lots of time to check out the
week’s array of pilots.

Something that has

been fairly consistent is
the surprising amount of
“fairly average” shows.
They aren’t great, and

yet definitely aren’t bad.
In general, I think most

of them have potential,
depending on where the
stories go, such as with
my previous reviews of
shows The New Normal and
The Mob Doctor. This week

hasn’t been any different,
but there are a few shows
that stuck out that I thought
deserved some attention.

First off is The
Neighbors, a comedy where
anew family moves in
to a community of aliens
posing as humans. Despite
its immense cheesiness,
the show had my family
laughing at the antics, such
as the unique greeting
the aliens gave their new
neighbors. The problem
with this show, however, is
that it is a tad more juvenile,
so I can see it getting old
before the season is even
finished.

An interesting show
that I was looking forward
to was one called The Last
Resort. This one starts off
with a navy crew aboard
a large submarine that is
given the order to shoot
nuclear missiles at Pakistan.
They question the orders
because they come through
a less-secure secondary line
instead of the primary line,
even though D.C. has not
fallen, and because they
have not been told they

are at war. Several minutes
later, while they await a
confirmation through the
primary line, an American
missile is shot at them. They
survive, but now they are
on the run from their own
country.

Some of the ideas
presented in The Last Resort
might be a little far-fetched,
such as the crew taking
a whole island for their
reftuge—assuming this is
no Lost or even Gilligan's
!sland—but the constant
threat of death and war
leave you on the edge of
your seat and wanting
more.

There are also two new
shows that share a similar
theme: Elementary and
Vegas. They both focus on
teams solving crimes, but
while Elementary is about
a modern-day Sherlock
Holmes (following the
success of BBC’s Sherlock
and changing things up by
casting Lucy Liu as a female
Watson), Vegas is about
a rancher named Ralph
Lamb (played by Dennis
Quaid) who becomes a

sheriff in 1960s Las Vegas.
Both are quite intriguing,
and I definitely recommend
them to anyone who enjoys
a good crime drama or
mystery show.

If none of September’s
pilots appeal to you, don’t
despair! There are more
to come in the following
months. Two that I
recommend looking out
for are the new Beauty and
the Beast remake, which is
loosely based on the 1987
CBS series, and Arrow, an
adaptation of the Green
Arrow which focuses on
a wealthy playboy who
becomes a vigilante crime
fighter by night—not ninja-
like Bruce Wayne, but
archer Oliver Queen. Beauty
and the Beast will take a
look at a person’s actions
rather than their physical
beauty, while following
the immense success of
Smallville (both on the
CW), Arrow will look into a
darker side of the famed life
of a superhero.