"A Scanner Darkly" sheds light on drug abuse
I'm behind on my film reviews, and I doubt I'll ever catch up, but I do want to write something about Richard Linklater's film, "A Scanner Darkly," which was screened early Friday morning.
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"A Scanner Darkly" takes place in the near future in Anaheim, Calif., and features Keanu Reeves as an undercover drug agent whose goal is to find out who sells and manufactures the mysterious drug known as Substance D. Reeves secretly is taking Substance D because of job stress and finds that both hemispheres of his brain are competing with each other to fill in the brain lobes destroyed by his drug use.
Although it isn't the best film in competition, it is one of the best. It's not really a commercial film, if only because it spends a lot of time on conversations between paranoid drug users, has little special effects or quick plot developments. I haven't read Phillip K. Dick's book, which the film is based off of. However, several reviews have noted that the movie is so true to the book that it's not commercially viable.
The ending, however, is more commercial and surprisingly touching and definitely redeems a lot of the movie. If this sees a wide release, I'll be surprised, but it's definitely worth watching.
3.5 stars
***
Wayne's star system
1 star --> avoid at all costs
2 stars --> watch on TV when nothing else is on
3 stars --> rent it eventually
4 stars --> must see before you die
***
If I had to pick one movie to see at Cannes, it would be "A Scanner Darkly." The film has intrigued me ever since it was announced in 2003. I saw "Waking Life," and really liked the animation process -- called interpolated rotoscoping. The technique involves filming the movie in DV and then painting over each cell one by one.
Highlights from the news conference
At the news conference Thursday, Linklater said the movie was delayed from its original September 2005 release, because the animation process ended up taking more than 500 hours. Downey Jr. joked that animators worked under sweatshop conditions to get the film completed.
The film was shot on a really low budget in Austin, Texas, in just 23 days, Linklater added. No company even would fund it until stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder and Woody Harrelson were attached to the project, he said.
Downey Jr. joked that "the 25 years of drug research I've been doing" helped him prepare for his role as a paranoid drug user. This generated lots of laughs.
One reporter asked whether Linklater thought the media made people paranoid.
"I don't think the media is paranoid enough or they are about the wrong things," Linklater said. "They report on a person that could break into your house but give a free pass to what's really affecting things. Healthy paranoia is good for dialogue, but they're made to think it's bad to be paranoid."
Meanwhile, Downey Jr. said that just because he has roles liberal films such as "Good Night, and Good Luck," and "A Scanner Darkly," doesn't mean he "is some left-wing Larry."
"I like George Bush," he said. "I have a nice picture of Bush with my wife on top of my refrigerator. I think he's a shitkicker and gets things done. Is that OK?" he asked.
Too funny.
***
"A Scanner Darkly" takes place in the near future in Anaheim, Calif., and features Keanu Reeves as an undercover drug agent whose goal is to find out who sells and manufactures the mysterious drug known as Substance D. Reeves secretly is taking Substance D because of job stress and finds that both hemispheres of his brain are competing with each other to fill in the brain lobes destroyed by his drug use.
Although it isn't the best film in competition, it is one of the best. It's not really a commercial film, if only because it spends a lot of time on conversations between paranoid drug users, has little special effects or quick plot developments. I haven't read Phillip K. Dick's book, which the film is based off of. However, several reviews have noted that the movie is so true to the book that it's not commercially viable.
The ending, however, is more commercial and surprisingly touching and definitely redeems a lot of the movie. If this sees a wide release, I'll be surprised, but it's definitely worth watching.
3.5 stars
***
Wayne's star system
1 star --> avoid at all costs
2 stars --> watch on TV when nothing else is on
3 stars --> rent it eventually
4 stars --> must see before you die
***
If I had to pick one movie to see at Cannes, it would be "A Scanner Darkly." The film has intrigued me ever since it was announced in 2003. I saw "Waking Life," and really liked the animation process -- called interpolated rotoscoping. The technique involves filming the movie in DV and then painting over each cell one by one.
Highlights from the news conference
At the news conference Thursday, Linklater said the movie was delayed from its original September 2005 release, because the animation process ended up taking more than 500 hours. Downey Jr. joked that animators worked under sweatshop conditions to get the film completed.
The film was shot on a really low budget in Austin, Texas, in just 23 days, Linklater added. No company even would fund it until stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder and Woody Harrelson were attached to the project, he said.
Downey Jr. joked that "the 25 years of drug research I've been doing" helped him prepare for his role as a paranoid drug user. This generated lots of laughs.
One reporter asked whether Linklater thought the media made people paranoid.
"I don't think the media is paranoid enough or they are about the wrong things," Linklater said. "They report on a person that could break into your house but give a free pass to what's really affecting things. Healthy paranoia is good for dialogue, but they're made to think it's bad to be paranoid."
Meanwhile, Downey Jr. said that just because he has roles liberal films such as "Good Night, and Good Luck," and "A Scanner Darkly," doesn't mean he "is some left-wing Larry."
"I like George Bush," he said. "I have a nice picture of Bush with my wife on top of my refrigerator. I think he's a shitkicker and gets things done. Is that OK?" he asked.
Too funny.
posted by Wayne Ma at
11:45 AM
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