Review of A Scanner Darkly (2006) by Tyler R — 03 May 2013

A Scanner Darkly is one of the best animated movies of the past decade. It's based on the novel by Philip K Dick and it was written for the screen and directed by Richard Linklater. This is the best adaptation of this book that could have been done.

It stars Keanu Reeves as Fred an undercover cop who is part of a group of drug addicts under the alias of Bob Arctor so when he's at the police station he has to wear the scramble suit which means that no one knows his true identity which makes it very stressful when Fred is assigned to watch himself.

Half of the population is hooked on a drug called substance d which distorts reality so that means that some of the scenes are hallucinations and the animation makes it come to life in a beautiful fashion.

The filmmakers did an animation style called rotoscoping which is when the filmmakers shoot everything in real time and then get an animator to hand trace all of the film and then animate it and it looks great.

This movie has humor but it also has a tough message at its core about how drugs can lead to bad things happening. Richard Linklater is one of the best directors we have because he does projects like this and he doesn't like to pander to audience expectation and that's why this movie is so well done because the director was true to the story and we need more movies like this.