Go see A Scanner Darkly at the first possible opportunity. The rotoscoping is a feast for the eyes. Keanu Reeves is at his best when animated. It's the best film adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's work to screen to date--and yes, I am including Blade Runner.
It's also the most faithful adaptation, at least as well as I can judge having read the book some years ago. All the other adaptations of his work have either captured the ideas and unsettling atmosphere pretty well, but changed the story to fit it into a movie (Blade Runner), or have taken only the slightest hint of the idea and made it into an action movie--including the good (Total Recall), the bad (Minority Report), and the ugly (Paycheck).
Scanner is pure PKD, though. Paranoid, unsettling, unfailingly pessimistic, suspicious of power, and darkly funny. It manages to transcend the story of a bunch of drug-addled losers and delve into deep questions of identity, power, and isolation. And it does so without dragging, lingering unnecessarily, or beating you over the head with just how insightful it is (which is to say, Linklater has matured a great deal since making Waking Life).
It casts a critical eye towards drugs, drug users, and drug cops in pretty equal measure. The users are pathetic. The cops are deluded thugs. And the industry that springs up in the name of "treatment" is the most insidious and contemptible player of all. It ought to leave you wondering what a society should be willing to give up in the name of fighting drugs, regardless of how dangerous the drugs themselves may be.
(Admittedly--on this point, they're preaching to the converted with me.)
3 comments:
I remember watching Waking Life with you. Lots of boos and hisses if I remember correctly.
i am looking forward to this movie; thanks for the review
I do hate Linklater and specifically Waking Life. But I will try out a Scanner Darkly.
What else am I going to do?
It was alright.
Looked cool as hell. RDJ was pretty awesome.
Some of the lines were just a little much.
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