At first glance, you'd think A scanner darkly was style over substance. That is very much wrong. If you peeled away the trippy layers of rotoscoping, you'd still have a very cool and original movie. The writing is really tight and builds up a great and paranoid setting.
The characters are very varied. Keanu Reeves, who does a decent job, is a somewhat apathetic washout, a role that fits him well. For all the Keanu-haters out there, I can say that he is not the sole star of the movie. This movie is much more about his friends, a mixed bag of drug-addicts and dopers.
Robert Downey Jr. does a fantastic role as the manic, phony-eloquent pseudo-intellectual Barris. He's very believable and you can't help get a bit annoyed by him even as you laugh. He has some great lines, and he delivers them superbly.
Winona Rider's Donna is a character we don't get to see enough of. The scenes she's in are good, and she certainly looks and acts like a burnout.
Rory Cochrane is even more creepy as Freck, the worst case of the little group. You can feel your skin crawling as soon as he goes on-screen. For those who have read the book: Yes, the opening sequence is the same.
Then there's the under-appreciated Woody Harrelson, funny and realistic as Luckman. His burned-out logical jumps and paranoid outbursts are perfect.
A benefit of the rotoscoping is that supporting roles can for once look like natural people. Think about it. In your average Hollywood flick, there are professional small parts actors and actresses. The same small group of people perpetually turning up as doctors, gas station attendants, brokers... how real does that feel? I'm sure Linklater doesn't care anyway, but it just seems more natural with unknowns when they're drawn. A small point but there might be something to it.
The real benefit of the rotoscoping, of course, is that it looks good. Every frame is like a cutout from a graphic novel or some pop art. For a drug movie, you couldn't ask for anything better. As tempting as it must have been, the animation team has however limited the really trippy sequences to where it matters. All in all, there are only two or three hallucinatory scenes. The general floatiness of the animation, however, gives the movie a fluid and slightly hallucinatory look in general.
Combine all of the above and add a healthy dose of paranoid music by Radiohead and you've got a cult classic and a great piece of art. Not to be missed by those who appreciate film.
The characters are very varied. Keanu Reeves, who does a decent job, is a somewhat apathetic washout, a role that fits him well. For all the Keanu-haters out there, I can say that he is not the sole star of the movie. This movie is much more about his friends, a mixed bag of drug-addicts and dopers.
Robert Downey Jr. does a fantastic role as the manic, phony-eloquent pseudo-intellectual Barris. He's very believable and you can't help get a bit annoyed by him even as you laugh. He has some great lines, and he delivers them superbly.
Winona Rider's Donna is a character we don't get to see enough of. The scenes she's in are good, and she certainly looks and acts like a burnout.
Rory Cochrane is even more creepy as Freck, the worst case of the little group. You can feel your skin crawling as soon as he goes on-screen. For those who have read the book: Yes, the opening sequence is the same.
Then there's the under-appreciated Woody Harrelson, funny and realistic as Luckman. His burned-out logical jumps and paranoid outbursts are perfect.
A benefit of the rotoscoping is that supporting roles can for once look like natural people. Think about it. In your average Hollywood flick, there are professional small parts actors and actresses. The same small group of people perpetually turning up as doctors, gas station attendants, brokers... how real does that feel? I'm sure Linklater doesn't care anyway, but it just seems more natural with unknowns when they're drawn. A small point but there might be something to it.
The real benefit of the rotoscoping, of course, is that it looks good. Every frame is like a cutout from a graphic novel or some pop art. For a drug movie, you couldn't ask for anything better. As tempting as it must have been, the animation team has however limited the really trippy sequences to where it matters. All in all, there are only two or three hallucinatory scenes. The general floatiness of the animation, however, gives the movie a fluid and slightly hallucinatory look in general.
Combine all of the above and add a healthy dose of paranoid music by Radiohead and you've got a cult classic and a great piece of art. Not to be missed by those who appreciate film.