A Scanner Darkly (2006) 100 Minutes

The weather has just been knocking us around of late. This is the third Pick in our last six to be screened Indoors. Over the years there has been many grumbles about how Indoor Picks just don’t feel like Movienight. Pat Towne seldom joins the Membership when we screen Indoors, and this week Netti bowed out from the Pick citing that his heart wasn’t into watching an Indoor Pick. So Tooda turned to the Crew before the Pick began and posed the question: If we get rained out is it better to cancel? The response from those assembled - Buffy, Slim, Nubs, Tooda, and our good friend Johnnie G. was unanimous and resounding. The ritual, and the camaraderie are more important than the venue. So Indoor Picks will remain a part of our structure moving forward, as much as they have been a part of our History.

Our SELECTOR Slim had a well-prepared pre-amble, that went into a lot of detail about how his Selection fit into the Canon. His details led the Movienight Archivist to (regrettably) guess the Pick before it began. It mattered little, as Slim was the only person here to see this unique film before.

‘A Scanner Darkly’ was released in theaters two days after the Crew enjoyed ‘Chinatown’ on the Stucco 125 Picks ago... and it connects to a great many Picks before and since.

It is our second film from writer/director Richard Linklater (‘Dazed & Confused’) as well as our second based on the work of Philip K. Dick (‘Blade Runner’). This is our third “animated” film, though the process used to make this picture is very different from the traditional cel animation of ‘Watership Down,’ or the computer animation of ‘The Incredibles.’ While Robert Downey, Jr. and Winona Ryder debut with this Selection, Keanu Reeves goes for two after his debut in Nubby’s ‘I Love You to Death.’

Next week, Tooda returns to follow up his Indoor Presentation of ‘Manhunter.’ The ten day forecast says there is zero chance of rain.

“‘D’ is dumbness, and despair, desertion - desertion of you from your friends, your friends from you, everyone from everyone. Isolation and loneliness... ”

Written and Directed by: Richard Linklater

BBD Comments:

To be honest, this film had me scratching my head a little bit. I’m not saying it’s a bad Pick, not at all, just that I had a hard time following the storytelling. I felt a bit like Coolbaugh during ‘Yojimbo.’

That this is an excellent follow up to the sublime ‘Lives of Others’ is beyond dispute. But, as enamored as Slim was with ‘Going in Style’s merits as a follow-up to ‘Benjamin Buttons’ I fear the day when what constitutes a Slam Dunk is how well it answers the previous Selection.

This was not a Slam Dunk. Perhaps it is the ubiquity of Charles Schwab commercials featuring the animation technique employed here, but I failed to connect with the narrative of this film. If the whole point of the story is that when we hardly know ourselves how can a government expect to understand us through surveillance - I find it a flimsy purpose to build a feature film around.

It doesn’t help that the narrative constantly tries to knock us off balance at the end of each “D” trip. It seems to me that the surreal nature of the visuals befuddles the film’s purpose. If we entered and exited the animated world, there would be far more texture to the proceedings, but we can’t judge a film on what might of been...

In the end, it was an interesting effort - but it failed to move me, or make me think. Science Fiction is a form I so admire for its ability to speak to the world today in terms of a non-existent future. Sci Fi is where a great deal can be said that isn’t palatable in other forums. ‘A Scanner Darkly’ simply doesn’t have much to say at all, and it takes 100 minutes to find that out. What I had hoped would be a three course meal was, in the end, merely a late night snack.

Onwards.

Nubs Comments:

Dude. I mean, who, what…dude.

You team up notorious burnouts like Woody, Keanu, Downey Jr., and Linklater, Bob and his cousin Pete McHash and…dude, what happened?

I admit the animation and bewildering plot lulled me into a state of close-eyed meditation but I shouldn’t have been so lost before and after my 3-minute nap.

I will give Slim credit for taking Netti’s government surveillance theme and taking it to new Movienight modern animated world. However, as I established with my ‘Near Dark,’ a good tie-in does not a Slam Dunk make. The technology and Headsets themes were perfect for Movienight. The story just needed a clearer guide, which Linklater is notoriously not. The cool, swirly colors and typical add-nothing Keanu seemed to be enough for Buffy and Goldstones (I can speak for them since they wont write review), yet my Movienight record should show I’m an Ebert-like stickler for plot.

I appreciate Slim braving the warm Indoors and keeping with all-important Wednesday night ritual that has been kept alive from Headsets 7 years ago till when I invented Movienight and beyond. Slim and the stalwart Crew this eve realized it’s not the measure of the Slam Dunk one brings, it’s that they bother to step up to the plate.

SELECTOR Comments:

Within thirty minutes after ‘The Lives of Others’ ended, I knew what my follow-up would be. I had it all set. I put it on my Amazon Wish List that night when I drunkenly got home and planned on purchasing it that next day. Then I woke up and three new “perfect” Picks came to mind, each one better than the next. Then that weekend, four more perfect follow-up Selections dawned on me. By Monday night, I had eight Selections to choose from, each with varying degrees of surveillance, paranoia, police, etc. The more options I had, the more I couldn’t decide which one worked best. From technical-style surveillance films to psycho-style surveillance films; from “open your eyes” films to “close your eyes” films. And the funny part is, three of these possible Selections were written by Philip K. Dick, including the one I actually went with.

‘A Scanner Darkly’ is a ferocious little film that grinds its message deep into your retinas. I had another Selection that wasn’t as demented and frantic as this one, but I decided to go with ‘A Scanner Darkly’ because of the Indoor Presentation. It’s a very paranoid film that mostly takes place inside a stuffy little home or office, and the feeling of being stared upon, followed and/or scrutinized by authorities is presented ten-fold when shown indoors – at least I hoped. And there are multiple similarities between this film and 'The Lives of Others': authorities using high-tech surveillance against a group of undesirable citizens; microphones and cameras in their house; a close friend giving the cops info about his friends; a state-run city under a form of martial law; and most importantly, 'The Lives of Others' had the hard-nosed HGW turning away from the cops and helping the people he was ordered to watch, and 'A Scanner Darkly' had Keanu's character who went from being an undercover narcotics agent to a full-fledged junkie, desiring the lifestyle of those he was watching rather than those that were paying him to watch.

Although I love this fucked-up little film, I’m not sure how the Crew received it. No one had seen it before, and the immediate reception after the film was not the best I could have hoped for (it was actually quite silent then the subject changed to something else, which is not a good sign). But my only intent was to show a good film, show a film that followed its predecessor well, and hopefully entertained the Crew. I think I may have nailed one out of these three points, but not sure about the other two points. But you can’t please all the people all of the time, so you have to stick to your guns and hope for the best.

In hindsight, I did try and sell this Pick a little too heavily in my preamble because I knew it was going to be an uphill battle for its acceptance. And in this “Hard Sell” approach, I must have said too much because Tooda guessed the film in the first 6 seconds. I had opted for a more “intimate” preamble for this film, and I casually lounged on the armrest of a chair and said my business to the Crew, like an uncle telling ghost stories around a campfire. It was this comfortable intimacy that caused me to reveal too many facts about the secret Selection to come. From now on, I stand.

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