A Scanner Darkly

Richard Linklater is my favorite young American filmmaker, but I’ve never read Philip K. Dick and have never been taken with the dystopian movies made from his stories, so no wonder my reaction to this film is mixed. This is about slackers gone to seed, dazed and confused to the point of paranoia and dementia -- drug users, dealers, and agents in a dance of death, epitomized in the little red pills of Substance D. Very appropriately, Linklater revisits the techniques of Waking Life, with rotoscoped animation from a live-action digital original. Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder are all completely recognizable even through transmorphed, and each is very good, with Downey astounding on several levels. The film is funny and freaky, but neither funny nor freaky enough. Neither the characters nor the story engage sufficiently to take one through all their twists and turns, so one is left with a deficient “oh wow!” response. (2006, Images, n.) *6* (MC-73.)