73
Metascore
33 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanDowney, who, having grasped that he's playing a cartoon character, delivers the most animated performance. (Midway through 2006, this supporting turn is the performance to beat in what seems the year's American movie to beat.)
- 80L.A. WeeklyL.A. WeeklyAs they (Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson) bicker and banter, threaten one another with small household objects, and try (unsuccessfully) to determine the number of gears on a bicycle, they display a combination of irritability and incompetence that is the soul of comedy.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirThere's no other filmmaker, living or dead, who could produce a futuristic sci-fi nightmare, a hipster comedy, a haunting film noir and a cartoon, all in the same movie.
- 75Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThis gifted writer-director isn't out to dull the masses with cinematic opium. Embedded in the visionary headtrip of A Scanner Darkly is a hotly political call to arms.
- 70VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangDeeply intriguing but almost too-faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's nightmarish 1977 novel.
- 67The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsWhich makes it all the more frustrating that the film doesn't quite work, and that it drags from episode to episode--some are brilliant, most merely intriguing--with little momentum.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAs a whole, the film has too little character and/or plot development to sustain narrative interest. What A Scanner Darkly excels at is mood and tone.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliIf ever there was a movie more destined to become a cult phenomenon, I don't know if I can name it.
- 42Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanIn A Scanner Darkly, we're watching other people freak out, but the film is maddening to sit through because their freak-outs never become ours.
- 40The Hollywood ReporterThe Hollywood ReporterAudiences will have to seek out their own peculiar diversions in order to last the whole course of this demi-dud.