One Word Movie

A Scanner Darkly

I know there's a lot of scope for really poor jokes like, I was a teenage Dick fan, but I was, and A Scanner Darkly was one of my favourite ones. That and Galactic Pot-Healer. So, I was a bit worried when this film came out because of the vast opportunity to mess it up badly. I find the problem with Philip K Dick films is that they look wrong; so often the plot hinges on the fact that everyone lives in a constructed world, and the filmmakers can't show you a reality that lives up to the text. In this respect, the rotoscoping technique used by Richard Linklater works wonderfully well, because you know everything is fake, everything has been interfered with. I find it's also pretty entertaining just to look at, it reminded me of some phenomenal paintings by a bloke called Dan Hays. Unfortunately the paintings look shit on t'internet so you will just have to go and see them live.

The performances are excellent, but it is a little scary seeing Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jnr looking a little old and crinkly. And while the film is true to the novel in its deep pesimism, there is humour in it: after all, it was more like autobiography for poor old Phil K. In short, it's hard work, but definitely good. If you are interested, check out the original book, and an excellent and newly translated biography of the man himself, snappily entitled I am Alive and you are Dead, which makes Dick's novels look pretty much like reportage.

posted by Chairman Peyote @ 10:37 AM