Review of A Scanner Darkly (2006) by Kevin H — 03 Sep 2014

It's no spoiler that at the end of Phillip K Dick's book of the same title he dedicates the story to a list of friends lost through drug abuse. One of those being his wife, another one actually being himself.

Obviously this is a very personal story close to his heart, and it feels like the movie respects those sentiments.

A lot of attention is paid to the rotoscope animation, which no doubt is great, but it's usually attention paid at the cost of missing the film's underlying emotion.

Linklater and his crew do a technically impressive job at nailing the expected drug trip scenes, of which there are maybe two in the whole movie. However they do an even better job at demonstrating the tolls on individuals after the trip -and after the fun.

Like all good science fiction A Scanner Darkly shows us a convincing new world that gives us just enough distance to look at our own from a different vantage point.

Not that this isn't great entertainment- it completely is - but it's also more than that. Many of us have a name that we could add to Phillip K Dick's list.

This movie is perceptive in realizing that the list isn't really just about friends lost; it's about friends we hope can be found again. This movie, like the book it spawned from, isn't completely for or against drugs, but simply aware of them.

Where much of society either condones or condemns drug use then turns its head in the other direction, Dick and Linklater focus head on, even in the haziest times. Through that they see it clearly.