Looper

Yes, Rian Johnson's Looper could easily be the new Blade Runner. It's kinetic and violent and prophetic and masterfully directed and acted. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as an assassin who conducts mob hits at the gate of a time portal through which  the unfortunate victims are shoved from the year 2072 back to 2022 where Joe the Looper waits, blunderbuss in hand. This way, there's no body to connect the mob to the hit.  It's an intriguing idea made even more so when Joe the Younger faces his future self (Bruce Willis) at the portal, kills him and then doesn't and thus begins the journey along the Moebius strip that is this film's twisting narrative. Johnson, who also wrote the screenplay, has crafted a  world that borrows a bit of the yin yang / future-retro of Mad Max and the grimy dystopia of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The film is arresting and absorbing in its imaginative detail, even down to Gordon-Levitt's uniquely Eurasian features being molded to reflect more of Willis's, except (spoiler alert!) Gordon-Levitt has attached earlobes and Willis does not. It's not enough to derail the story but for those fixated on continuity issues (like me) might find it a bit of a distraction.