Compelling characters reign in 'Looper,' 'End of Watch' and 'The Master'

Look beyond the residents of "Hotel Transylvania" and the monsters in "Resident Evil Part 18" and you'll notice a trio of fascinating, character-driven films playing at a theater near you. And only one of them falls into the artsy-fartsy, for-film-snobs-only genre.

Nope, the most surprising winner so far this season is "Looper," a sci-fi thriller with more than a few scenes of a gun-toting Bruce Willis laying waste to nameless bad guys.

Willis has a small but integral part to play in a twisty and pleasant time-travel adventure from "Brick" director Rian Johnson.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Joe, a hitman living in 2042 who kills people sent via illegal time travel from 30 years in the future (it's the snazzy way of ditching bodies AND all the evidence).

When the bad guys of the future send future Joe (Willis) back to be killed by young Joe (an act known as "closing the loop"), old Joe escapes his sentence, which makes both Joes marked men.

Really, that's only the start of how crazy things get, with the most important bit of information revealed in the second half and the appearance of Emily Blunt as a tough-as-nails farm owner. "Looper" has its share of gun fights and heady depictions of future societal decay, but the movie slows down to focus on a moral dilemma the two Joes face when Blunt enters the picture.

Gordon-Levitt continues to prove his worth as one of Hollywood's most compelling young actors, and his sit-down with Willis at a rural diner is a tense centerpiece of the film. If the movie loses points for originality in the second half, it more than makes up for it in mood and character - even the secondary goons are given unique mannerisms and motivations.

That devotion to character makes "Looper" a refreshing entry to science fiction, a genre that has become overrun with flashy special effects and lazy plotting in recent years.

Any good buddy cop movie is dependent on the chemistry of its two leads. In "End of Watch," Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena develop such a convincing rapport that their famous faces all but vanish within the roles. The adventures of Officers Taylor and Zavala on the streets of Los Angeles may not be entirely representative of day-to-day LAPD routines, but the performances are more "real" feeling than most police procedurals.

The episodic structure of "End of Watch," depicting a string of interconnected days on the job with these two officers, brings an added sense of reality, as does the film's frequent use of "found footage" style camerawork. Gyllenhaal and Pena bring it home with comfortable banter and precise execution of police protocol. There isn't a moment where it feels like acting.

On the other end of the acting spectrum, the bravura, off-the charts-crazy performance of Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master" will never be described as subtle. He plays an unstable war veteran who becomes mesmerized by the enigmatic leader of The Cause, a religious/psychological movement with all-too-familiar connections to Scientology.

The "master" is played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in predictably spectacular fashion, and, sure, the connections to Scientology are provocative, but Phoenix's broken soldier remains the focus of the film. He gives a jaw-dropping performance in scene-after-scene as a man who searches for serenity and purpose but instead repeatedly boils over into self-loathing and violence.

"The Master" is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the talent behind "There Will Be Blood," "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia." It's a dense and beautiful film worthy of many more words than will allow here.

The challenging subject matter and lack of traditional plotting will earn "The Master" its detractors (perhaps most evidenced by the film's short theatrical engagement in Coeur d'Alene. It's still playing in Spokane).

Still, this kind of character-driven film is the reason why cinephiles get excited about the fall season. Fall brings color in the best kind of ways, even to cop movies and aging action stars.

Of course, we also have "Taken 2" this weekend. Baby steps, Hollywood.

Ticket Stubs is sponsored by the Hayden Cinema Six Theater. Showtimes at www.HaydenCinema6.com. Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.