A Scanner Darkly

So many films I need to catch up on! I'm so late on Superman Returns and other stuff, I should probably write them down on my planner somewhere and cross out dates.

Anyway, I did not hear about A Scanner Darkly until yesterday, and I watched it at the Landmark Sunshine cinema with a some "filmmakers" (more on this in another post). Since I had no expectations, it turned out that I enjoyed it. The film was animated via tracing over film footage so the actors look like themselves except cartoony. The effect of course is that Keanu Reeves turned out to be a better actor than he normally would, which makes his casting brilliant. Would I watch it again? Probably not. I'm a bit put off by subject matter which is drugs, even if I was entertained on first viewing. Considering that movie supposedly has an anti-drug message, the "fun" and entertaining parts of the movie are when the druggies are tripping out -- which on hindsight is a bit ironic, since it looked like these guys were having a great time and not suffering at all. The fact that Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr. are in the cast also adds to the surreality of it all since they are well known for their substance issues in real life. Were they here to advocate the perils of drug abuse, or out to glorify it? Harrelson is a big advocate for the legalization of marijuana as we all know. I'm on the fence on the effectiveness of the message -- but it was entertaining.

Verdict: Interesting.