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A Scanner Darkly (2006 - Richard Linklater)
For a near-future, drug-fueled Sci-Fi conspiracy movie, this sure was a boring trip. Faithfully hitting the major points of the P.K. Dick story, writer/director Linklater infuses his own style of dialogue but forgets the source material's wit and most importantly the paranoid tension. The movie is about a man (Keanu Reeves) who is an undercover agent monitoring and ostensibly trying to infultrate a drug ring that sells the dangerous hallucinogen SubstanceD. The drug destroys the brain and eventually severs the addict's mind into two entities. Because of this, the Reeves character can't quite figure out that he is essentially going after himself. The best bits in the movie come during the introductory scenes of the burned-out denizens of the drug dealer's circle. Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson as two babbling, arguing, paranoid users have some good moments, though the schtick wears thin quickly, and Rory Cochrane has fun playing the histrionics of an addict in the final stages who imagines bugs perpetually crawling all over him. Unfortunately other than that initial energy and the fun look of the rotoscoping, there isn't much else going on until the very end, where the final twist of the real conspiracy is revealed. But by then I didn't really care. What Phil Dick had to say about the cycle of users and the devious complicity of drug companies themselves was prophetic in 1977, but it is a very muted message in the 2006 film.
Visually it's interesting, to be sure, but I don't think Linklater conveys enough basic storytelling to make it matter much. Too bad.
GRADE: C
A Scanner Darkly (2006 - Richard Linklater)
For a near-future, drug-fueled Sci-Fi conspiracy movie, this sure was a boring trip. Faithfully hitting the major points of the P.K. Dick story, writer/director Linklater infuses his own style of dialogue but forgets the source material's wit and most importantly the paranoid tension. The movie is about a man (Keanu Reeves) who is an undercover agent monitoring and ostensibly trying to infultrate a drug ring that sells the dangerous hallucinogen SubstanceD. The drug destroys the brain and eventually severs the addict's mind into two entities. Because of this, the Reeves character can't quite figure out that he is essentially going after himself. The best bits in the movie come during the introductory scenes of the burned-out denizens of the drug dealer's circle. Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson as two babbling, arguing, paranoid users have some good moments, though the schtick wears thin quickly, and Rory Cochrane has fun playing the histrionics of an addict in the final stages who imagines bugs perpetually crawling all over him. Unfortunately other than that initial energy and the fun look of the rotoscoping, there isn't much else going on until the very end, where the final twist of the real conspiracy is revealed. But by then I didn't really care. What Phil Dick had to say about the cycle of users and the devious complicity of drug companies themselves was prophetic in 1977, but it is a very muted message in the 2006 film.
Visually it's interesting, to be sure, but I don't think Linklater conveys enough basic storytelling to make it matter much. Too bad.
GRADE: C