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Aside from the utterly fascinating concept, Linklater re-visits the same wonderful animation he enlisted in the fantastic \u201cWaking Life,\u201d with this visceral piece of druggie science fiction that instead focuses on the mechanics of the mind rather than in machines and science. As usual, Linklater prefers to delve into the human psyche and he gives it his best effort with some brutally beautiful animation. I dare you to look away from the Scramble suit. I dare you. Beyond that, the stand out performance is by Robert Downey Jr. as a druggie scientist who is both brilliant and mad, which is not hard to believe for a man who has no screws.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Scanner Darkly\u201d is not so much a commentary on the drug war, but more an indictment on both sides of the war, and what damage they\u2019re inflicting on society, and Dick had the guts to create a story in that vein. You have to respect Linklater for paying the man homage in that regard. And Linklater further explores his own brilliance as well as Dick\u2019s with a gut-wrenching finale that includes Dick\u2019s list of friends and family who were killed and or utterly damaged by drugs, and as someone who grew up in a drug-ridden environment, and with many family members taken by the addiction it\u2019s an awfully grueling sequence to view. I really wanted to love \u201cA Scanner Darkly,\u201d mainly because I\u2019m a huge fan of Richard Linklater.<\/p>\n
I think he\u2019s one of the most underrated, and brilliant directors of the modern age, and with films like \u201cDazed and Confused,\u201d and \u201cTape,\u201d it\u2019s not hard to see why he\u2019d come across as a pure talent. Being a hardcore fan of the brilliant \u201cWaking Life,\u201d Linklater returns with the more cohesive, but equally trippy \u201cA Scanner Darkly,\u201d where he once again gives us the rotoscoping mind bending in the guise of Phillip K. Dick. Linklater adapts the short drug induced story from the author enlisting his animation to help convey the world of sheer surrealism, and coked up hysteria. But it\u2019s still an otherwise utterly disappointing venture in the end. Linklater\u2019s adaptation is faithful, and utterly fascinating, but god is it ever underwhelming. You assume an animated film exploring the misadventures of three druggies being mentally destroyed by a new drug called Substance D would create some rather potent chemistry especially when you consider the wonderful cast behind this film, but Linklater is often half cocked throughout the course of the story.<\/p>\n
Gone is the usual human dialogue, gone is the engrossing exchanges between characters, gone is the vast insight and engaging characterization, and gone is any essence of Linklater\u2019s usual trademark of brilliance. \u201cWaking Life\u201d was steeped in surrealism, and existentialism, but it drew a following because Linklater injected much of his own sentiment within the seams. But \u201cA Scanner Darkly\u201d is a misfire due to its one-dimensional characters, and situations that are grueling to follow and or engage in. Whether it\u2019s the opening sequence of Rory Cochrane tripping out, or our character Bob discovering his brain can not be trusted, there\u2019s never an element to draw us into the utterly stale science fiction thriller. And those going into this blindly will be sure to notice how much the film comes off as a \u201cMatrix\u201d retread, especially with Reeves\u2019 character staggering around in an empty gaze and attempting to distinguish reality from drug induced hysteria.<\/p>\n
There was not one iota of \u201cA Scanner Darkly\u201d that grabbed me and gave me a reason to continue watching, and after so much exploration into the human mind from hemispheres, and psychoses, I was still left in the dark as to what was happening, and where it was going. With Linklater, he explores the mind while bringing us at eye level. \u201cA Scanner Darkly\u201d was alienating and utterly cold, and I just didn\u2019t like it. For a cerebral and utterly fantastic piece of film, check out “Waking Life,” because this is a dry hump sans the erection. I think Linklater is one of the best directors in the independent film circuit. He’s a brilliant writer, a brilliant director, and a man of many facets, which is why “A Scanner Darkly” was such a brutally gut wrenching disappointment. All the anticipation and expectations down in bloody flames, all the waiting all for naught; I’m crushed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aside from the utterly fascinating concept, Linklater re-visits the same wonderful animation he enlisted in the fantastic \u201cWaking Life,\u201d with this visceral piece of druggie science fiction that instead focuses on the mechanics of the mind rather than in machines and science. As usual, Linklater prefers to delve into the human psyche and he gives […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[50,64,99,302,846,906,1087],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-a","tag-adaptation","tag-animation","tag-drama","tag-richard-linklater","tag-science-fiction","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}