A Scanner Darkly Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)July 19th, 2006
A SCANNER DARKLY
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
***1/2 (out of ****)
It's a technique known as rotoscoping: the art of tracing over live action footage and animating the results. But with today's technological advances filmmakers--or should I say filmmaker (singular) Richard Linklater--can take this creative methodology one dramatic step further by shooting an original story, replete with recognizable actors (Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Winona Ryder, and Woody Harrelson to name a few) and then having computers "paint over" the footage, the result of which is an animated feature unlike any other.
Well, unlike any other but "Waking Life" that is, Linklater's first attempts at deploying this painstaking approach back in 1991.
With "A Scanner Darkly" Linklater, the director of such disparate gems as "Dazed and Confused," "Tape," and "The School of Rock" (not to mention the gem-free remake of the "Bad News Bears"), has pushed the animated envelope further than ever before, and what better source material than Philip K. Dick, whose novels and short stories have been the constant inspiration for some seriously spaced-out cinema ("Bladerunner," "Total Recall," "Minority Report"). Couple that with Linklater's preternaturally warped take on things, from existential intellectualism to druggy counter-culture references to pop psychedelia, and "A Scanner Darkly" has all the trappings of a captivating film experience.
Seven years from now, 20% of the world's population is addicted to a prevalent, mind-altering drug known as Substance D. Keanu Reeves, himself utterly dependent on popping the little red pills, plays an undercover narcotics agent--"Fred"--engaged in a surveillance operation. The object of his assignment turns out to be Bob Arctor, himself! That's what happens (I guess) when the left and right hemispheres of your brain are competing against each other. Also under the watchful eye of the drug agents' clandestine scanners are Bob's strung-out housemates, a conspiracy theorist (an animated Downey, Jr. in both senses of the word) and a blonde-haired slacker (Harrelson), plus Bob's girlfriend Donna (Ryder), a dealer whom the narcs hope will lead them to a bigger score.
This whole concept about Keanu's character eavesdropping on himself is as confusing on film as it was on paper but since Dick too struggled with drug addiction "A Scanner Darkly" was reputedly autobiographical in nature. Linklater has made real strides in keeping true to the book and as a result his choice of medium makes a lot of sense: the wobbly, saturated colors thoroughly infuse the film, giving it a trippy distance. If anything perhaps the director could have gone further overboard (beyond the imagined aphids, exploding heads, and naked Winona)? The opportunity was certainly there: just how much of the live action did Linklater's animators actually augment?
One of the coolest effects in the film is the "scramble suit" worn by Reeves' character and his fellow agents, a revolving door of constantly shifting identities--male, female, young, old, Caucasian, Hispanic--rendering the wearer unrecognizable (well, I guess they're recognizable as a narc). But it's the director's devotion to ideas like these, as much as the ideas themselves, which give the film its punch.
Like "Waking Life" before it, "A Scanner Darkly" offers up a window into a visually rich and resplendent world. As head games go this one's dark, talky, and terrific.
--
David N. Butterworth
[email protected]
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
