A Scanner Darkly

This entry was posted by owl and bear staff on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 12:26 pm.

I know what I want for Christmas: this damn-near-perfect book adaptation.

With the animation-for-adults A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater swoops in from the wings like a psychedelic, bad trip Batman to deliver the goods and prove that I actually can like a movie with Keanu Reeves in it. (Apparently, Keanu only needs a good director to loosen him up.)

Not since the horrifying Requiem For A Dream has chemically-induced-paranoia been this palpable; viewers will feel it crawling across the skin. Of course, some credit is due to Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey, Jr. for their extensive drug resumes, but this lends the film its necessary air of authenticity.

Kudos to Linklater & Co. for having the oysters to bring Philip K. Dick’s damn-near-untranslatable paranoiac vision to screens. Everyone does a perfect job here. A Scanner Darkly redefines the Sci-fi genre and shows that it’s possible to make an intelligent film about the terrifying near-future without reverting to laser guns, rocket cars, and light sabers.

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