‎A Scanner Darkly (2006) directed by Richard Linklater • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

A Scanner Darkly

2006 Directed by Richard Linklater

Everything Is Not Going To Be OK

An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

Keanu Reeves Winona Ryder Woody Harrelson Robert Downey Jr. Mitch Baker Steven Chester Prince Natasha Valdez Angela Rawna Chamblee Ferguson Melody Chase Rory Cochrane Turk Pipkin Dameon Clarke Jason Douglas Marco Perella Alex Jones

100 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★½ 13

___________________________________________________________________________________
Film #15 of the February Movie Challenge : Keanu Reeves or Bust!
letterboxd.com/naughty/list/february-movie-challenge-keanu-reeves-or/
___________________________________________________________________________________

According to a quote from Asher's Review Anyone whom didn't like or can't appreciate this film are nothing but a bunch of shape shifting albino lizard bitches!

So I'm here to confess I AM nothing but a shape shifting albino lizard bitch! And shape shifting albino lizard bitches cannot live on style alone! We need things like flies, insects, grubs and other things of substance like CONTENT! Which in my opinion there was very little of as the film progressed!

It is amusing, dark and trippy! It simply didn't ring my chimes!
Review by DirkH ★★★½

Film #10 of 'It's June Jim, but not as we know it.'

A Scanner Darkly is perhaps the most faithful Philip K. Dick adaptation I've ever seen. It is my favourite novel of his, a mind bending, deeply emotional and autobiographical Science Fiction novel and I guess that's why I never bothered with this adaptation. I truly respect Linklater's attempts to stay as close to the original even though he unfortunately favours form over content.

Linklater's rotoscopic technique is a bit of a double edged sword for me here. I loved how the animation made me share in how all the druggies in the film view the world. It is a kaleidoscopic experience, sometimes with a surreal world, sometimes with…
Review by alphonse ★★★★

Five years after his first animated film, Waking Life, Richard Linklater decided to take the rotoscoping technique to another level with an adaptation of one of Philip K. Dick's most acclaimed literary pieces. Once again the way the American director takes advantage of the rotoscoping technique (which consits of shooting on video - as live action - and then painting over) and proves it isn't merely an excuse to make an animated film, this style of animating serves the film's plot, subject matter, tone and atmosphere perfectly, now with a clearer execution (the fleeting, uncertain and foggy forms of Waking Life, which served the film's dream-like essence, are almost left behind - but the whole surrealism and insanity of the…
Review by Steve Robinson ★★★★ 2

I was so glad that I managed to watch this when it came briefly on the cinema many years ago. Now a chance to revisit it on blu Ray and it was worth my time.

Dicks novel adapted and told beautifully and darkly using great acting, a brilliant script and some amazing direction by animating over the top of the filmed cells. You will not see a film like it. No film has been made like this since. It is a real genuine one off and worth experiencing.

Delving into a future dominated by surveillance and drug abuse it doesn't feel far from the world that we inhabit today and seems like a real possibility. Yet at the same time it feels detached and dark as we delve deeper into Reeves characters psyche. It's brilliant and moving and I recommend anyone who wants to appreciate film to watch it.
Review by brat pitt ★★★ 8

my first linklater movie ever & uh probably my last

EDIT: THAT'S A LIE I FORGOT ABOUT SCHOOL OF ROCK

EDIT 2: I WATCHED THE BEFORE TRILOGY & NOW WHOLEHEARTEDLY FORGIVE HIM FOR THIS MESS I'M SORRY RICHARD
Review by Josiah Morgan ★★★★½

Perhaps the most indescribably evocative film ever made, functioning on both an emotive and formal level, it's a comedy until it stops being funny. Linklater's achievement is essentially unmatched in the medium of animation.

Recent reviews

Review by CharlesJimenez ★★★★

It were as if the very person who initially gave this film a low rating was a completely different person, perhaps someone who followed their intuition over their intellect. And I'm glad that that person is now dead as like Naked Lunch, A Scanner Darkly is a surprising masterpiece.

Just about everything I initially wasn't fond of is exactly what I admire about this film. Initially I found the roto-scoped style to be a mixed bag due to the over-abundance of 2D images remaining in their exact dimension at every angle.

What I failed to realize was that this added to the films' hallucinatory quality. Being one who tries to analyze dreams closely, visually dreams are able to distort themselves…
Review by Tyler ★★★★

That was just great.
Review by Peter_Movie_Guy ★★★★★

‘ Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanner do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”

Most definitely fuckin yes one of my new favorite.
Review by Louis Dewing ★★★½

Richard Linklaters A Scanner Darkly is a nightmarish, bizzare and completely original foray into the world of sci-if, and to be precise, drugs.

Linkater has interpreted the Philip K. Dick novel (which I have not yet read) in his own, eclectic way. The use of rotoscope animation will be seen by some as a gimmick, and it quite possibly is, but if ever I’ve seen a film which the technique suited it’s A Scanner Darkly... It’s too adult and grimy to be done in standard animation and too psychotic and hallucinogenic for live-action.

So, the animation. Let me explain in a little detail what rotoscope animation entails. It is, in lamest terms, animation that is done over live-action footage... This…
Review by Jackson Garland ★★★★½

“Now in the dark world where I dwell, ugly things, and surprising things, and sometimes little wondrous things, spill out in me constantly, and I can count on nothing.”
Review by Sara ★★★

Cool animation and cool concept. Execution was kind of off though. Linklater is really hit or miss for me and this was closer to a miss.
Review by Donald Laitinen ★★★½

Alex Jones’ cameo is the least crazy thing about this movie. Keanu, Woody, Winona, and RDJ (2 years before Iron Man made him one of the biggest movie stars on the planet) all give great performances in an adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s paranoid novel, with some very innovative rotoscopic animation pushing the paranoia over the edge
Review by Reece ★★★★ 2

I’m admittedly not much of a fan of Waking Life. Revealing this fact has been detrimental before, however, it works for context here. I picked this movie up on dvd yesterday because I found it cheap and I like Linklater a lot. The premise sounded pretty good and I also like Keanu Reeves a lot. What I didn’t expect was an eerie, dystopian style drama about drug control. This is really great. Another great K Dick adaptation to film to add to the pile.
Review by oystermage ★★★★½

man i was so high i thought alex jones was in this