A Scanner Darkly
Philip K. Dick wrote the novel on which this film was based in 1977, in the middle of his personal and extraordinary journey with drugs. His books can loosely all be described as trippy (as are the films made from them, such as Blade Runner and Minority Report), but this book’s paranoia, identity confusion hallucinogenesis is definitive trippiness. It’s not a celebration of what drugs can do to you, it’s a condemnation indeed, but it also is a guided tour through the scary basement of one’s mind. Director Richard Linklater employed the interpolated rotoscope animation technique first in his film Waking Life, with no strong story underneath to propel it. Here, the technique finds a perfect marriage with the surreal prose and terrifying experiences of Keanu Reeve’s character, Bob Arctor, and his compatriots who use and investigate Substance D.
The movie is like a drug trip - the animation makes anything possible in a scene visually but also allowing small, subtler shifts in the “normal” things. A lamp may be scooching along a tabletop, or the perspective in a scene may slide about a bit, as if the objects were being shifted gently by the movement of a ship. Faces can morph and change, but ultimately, it’s still the actors that have to give the original performances. The freedom of correctability, coupled with the dependence the animators have on what the actors give them, makes for an interesting soup. The discombobulation of it all makes it really work. And honestly, how often can Austin, Texas pass for southern California without a thick coat of paint?
The plot itself is deliciously unique and interesting, a quandary only possible in the anonymous society where Bob works and the drug-addled culture in which he plays. It’s an identity crisis wrapped in a mystery and smothered in freakout sauce, and it’s relentlessly interesting. The grooviest scenes are the ones where the characters are clearly impaired and riffing on their own inner alpha waves.
The personalities behind the animation have to really be pronounced in order to seep through the paint, and who better for such a task than Robert Downey, Jr.? He has sucha distinct way of moving his head and hands and using his voice, it was easy to forget he was animated; other characters were equally visible (Rory Cochrane, the woman testing Reeves for Substance D) but Downey has a way of popping through the technique and owning the screen. Describing this movie is like describing a dream; you know what it felt like, but you just can’t describe it.
I wasn’t fond of Waking Life, though it was visually arresting, it was rather rambly and aimless, but this movie walks a tight line and keeps you on your toes. It’s worth checking out.
MPAA Rating R-drug & sexual content, language, brief violent image
Release date 7/14/06
Time in minutes 100
Director Richard Linklater
Studio Warner Independent Pictures
