Even before he sent shockwaves across the Star Wars fandom with Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi, director Rian Johnson had been deconstructing popular genres with uncommon intelligence. His first movie, the small-budget gem Brick, transported film noir tropes to a high-school setting. He followed it up with The Brothers Bloom, his version of a crime caper. By the time he made his third movie, which was recently added to the Starz streaming library, he was already hailed as someone to watch out for. Johnson’s third feature was a mind-bending time-travel thriller about an assassin tasked with killing his future self.
The movie features Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis as the assassin, with Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels in supporting roles. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, and was released theatrically to critical acclaim and commercial success a few weeks later. The film’s release came only a few months after the success of Duncan Jones‘ Source Code, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. That movie was massively successful as well, grossing nearly $150 million worldwide and scoring a terrific 92% on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. Johnson’s film one-upped it with a 93% Rotten Tomatoes score and a $176 million global box-office haul.
One of the Most Acclaimed Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade Just Became Easier to Access
We’re talking, of course, about Looper. The movie’s consensus on the aggregator website reads, “As thought-provoking as it is thrilling, Looper delivers an uncommonly smart, bravely original blend of futuristic sci-fi and good old-fashioned action.” Johnson moved on to the Star Wars franchise next, and delivered arguably the most divisive installment that the series had ever witnessed. His film was critically acclaimed, but Johnson’s narrative choices didn’t fully resonate with audiences. In recent years, he has devoted himself to the Knives Out film series, each installment of which has been acclaimed by critics. Starring Daniel Craig, the franchise began with a blockbuster theatrical feature, followed by two sequels that were released on Netflix. Looper, on the other hand, was recently added to Starz. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
- Release Date
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September 28, 2012
- Runtime
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118 minutes
- Director
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Rian Johnson
- Writers
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Rian Johnson
















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