Film Review: A SCANNER DARKLY

A SCANNER DARKLY
Film Review by: Paul Adam Smeltz

The strongest impression the film, “A Scanner Darkly,” makes is its visual style. It’s a technical evolution of the earlier film, “A Waking Life” by Richard Linklater (which was impressive in itself) which expands the technique by going beyond the visuals a lesser film maker would rely upon to dazzle his or her audience to enhance the story by allowing the audience to experience the images each character encounters through the course of the film. The technique I’m referring to films the actors as it would any other film animation is drawn over them to create a stunning cartoonish effect. As unlikely as it sounds, this cartoonish effect makes the film more real for us.

The film takes place in the near futures where a drug called “Substance D” is in large circulation and is used by many in our society. This includes a narcotic agent named Fred (played by Keanu Reeves) who is posing undercover as a dealer named, “Bob Arctor.” His addiction later leads him to his fate of incarceration and enrollment in a treatment that promises to be more devastating than the drug itself. The film utilizes the war on drugs to explore how our civil liberties could threatened by the enactment of laws and police procedures set in place to combat it.

"A Scanner Darkly" was written by Philip K. Dick before the devastating attacks which took place on September 11th, 2001. However, the film does not lose sight of the societal changes which took place since that day. The perceived threat of our civil liberties as our government engages in its “War on Terror” is easily seen as an allegory in the film. It even lends itself to question who is really responsible for such “wars” and could they be manufactured by those who would profit from them financially. I would encourage this film to be seen by those who would like to mentally challenged by a film’s social/political message as well as its special effects.

The film was seen during The Forwardian Arts Society’s Film and Chat Nite which took place at The Grand Cinema and Coffeehouse in East Stroudsburg, PA on Friday August 4th. The next Film and Chat Nite is scheduled to take place Friday September 1st. Please call 570-421-3456 or email forwardian@hotmail.com for more information.