A SCANNER DARKLY (Richard Linklater, 2006, USA) Being a huge PKD fan, my criticism of this film may seem too harsh because SCANNER is my favorite novel. But this film lacks the humor, friendship, and all-consuming paranoia of the novel and only gives us a glimpse of drug addicts acting strangely. The groundbreaking animation is an asset to the film because it keeps us slightly off-kilter as Arctor's kaleidoscope reality eventually crashes and burns out. The characters just don't have enough room to develop and become mere shades of their textual counterparts. Read the book: you'll begin by laughing out loud and end with tears and a heavy heart. At least the artists were able to animate Keanu beyond his usual monotone drone-like performance. (C)
It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you viddy them on the screen.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
A SCANNER DARKLY (Richard Linklater, 2006, USA) Being a huge PKD fan, my criticism of this film may seem too harsh because SCANNER is my favorite novel. But this film lacks the humor, friendship, and all-consuming paranoia of the novel and only gives us a glimpse of drug addicts acting strangely. The groundbreaking animation is an asset to the film because it keeps us slightly off-kilter as Arctor's kaleidoscope reality eventually crashes and burns out. The characters just don't have enough room to develop and become mere shades of their textual counterparts. Read the book: you'll begin by laughing out loud and end with tears and a heavy heart. At least the artists were able to animate Keanu beyond his usual monotone drone-like performance. (C)
