The Movies That We Love And Breathe

Saturday, January 06, 2007

A Scanner Darkly (2006).

Directed by
Richard Linklater

A Scanner Darkly is not just another drug movie. Its more subtle than say, Requiem for a Dream. However, the characters and imagery are a drug trip in itself.


The film is animated by a revolutionary technique using a software called Rotoshop which I guess, basically allows GFX artists to sketch, paint and trace over video to make Winona Ryder look like this.


Post Production work took care of most of the sets, props and costumes. The actors didn't even need makeup. Cool eh? More films should be made this way, right? But Rotoshop is proprietary software thats not commercially available and the owners don't plan to give it away anytime soon.


This experimental movie is set in a future where drug addicts are hooked on to a deadly substance and undercover agents spy and infiltrate gangs but no sir, this is no matrix or anything you'd normally associate with scifi movies. Its not an edge of the seat thriller - on the contrary it's slow and most scenes contain little or no action at all. The movie works as a dark drug abuse drama with occasional doses of hilarious dialogue from Robert Downey Jr. Definitely on the "must buy the DVD" list.


The movie is an adapation of a book and by virtue of which it must skip certain subplots and characters. A Scanner Darkly - Philip K.Dick immediately after watching the movie makes for a great read and is highly reccommended to fill up what might seem like plot-holes.