A Scanner Darkly

last updated 8 January 2015

This adaptation of the 1977 Philip K. Dick novel was 'œslipped into the summer movie season like acid in your Happy Meal,' said Rob Nelson in the Miami New Times. It's a freaky fantasy set seven years in the future and drawn over with an animation technique called rotoscoping, the fluid computer lines that director Richard Linklater also used for Waking Life. Keanu Reeves is Officer Fred, an undercover cop out to get dealers of Substance D, an addictive narcotic that can divide the brains of its users. But as he delves deeper, Fred comes to realize that his enemy, Bob, is actually his alter ego, deep undercover. This kind of stoner flick is 'œlittle more than a hip Reefer Madness hopped up with a sinister conspiracy,' said Andrew Stuttaford in The New York Sun. Linklater stays too true to Dick's rambling narrative, and can't seem to make sense of dual messages that demand relief from both the drug epidemic and the government's war against it. That double directive is the whole point of the film, said Andrew O'Hehir in Salon.com. We're asked to feel the urgency of both Bob's and Fred's missions, and to understand that a drug user is a victim and a criminal at the same time. Foregoing 'œobvious sound bites,' the film paints a sad, wavering landscape of suburban decay, making it 'œamong the darkest and loveliest movies you'll see this year.'

Rating: R