Scribez

What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly because I can’t any longer see into myself. I see only murk. I hope for everyone’s sake the scanners do better, because if the scanner sees only darkly the way I do, then I’m cursed and cursed again.

A Scanner Darkly is another weird movie! Weird weird weird weird! But that is definitely not a bad thing!

A Scanner Darkly uses a technique known as Rotoscopy which superimposes animation over existing frames shot in digital video. This really augments the already vey surreal theme of the film.

The plot follows Fred, an undercover cop deep into an investigation in a society that is infested with Substance D (a drug that induces acute hallucinations) addicts. He wears a Scramble Suit (very cool stuff) that makes him truly undercover. The problem is the group he’s invetigating includes a certian Bob, who may be well…Fred himself. Confused? You better be!

Robert Downey Jr and Woody Harrelson Play the protagonist’s trippy roomates and some of the philosophical discourses are simply amazing but then again a few of them simply went over my head.

A Scanner Darkly is inspired by the Philip K Dick book and is directed in the same vein of Waking Life (which was more of a documentary).

A Scanner Darkly is not great per se but it isn’t too bad either probably ‘cos I was expecting a little more depth and so I’d probably give it a 7/10.

Winoana Ryder doesn’t have mush to play but she does turn important in the last act which was definetly my favourite!

One of my fav exchanges in A Scanner Darkly:

Medical Deputy: You know, Fred, if you keep your sense of humor like you do, you just might make it.
Fred: Make it? Make what? The team? The chick? Make good? Make do? Make out? Make sense? Make money? Make time? Define your terms. The Latin for ‘make’ is facere, which always reminds me of f**kere, which is Latin for ‘to f***’, and I have been getting jack s**t in that department as of late.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 18th, 2006 at 11:12 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.