A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Directed by Richard Linklater. Starring Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane, Angela Rawna, Chamblee Ferguson, Lisa Marie Newmyer, (voices) Mark Turner, Sean Allen. [R]

Bold, jittery adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s science fiction novel, written as a reflection of the author’s experiences in the drug culture of the 60s and 70s. In the decrepit near future, Reeves and his drug-addled roommates (Downey Jr. and Harrelson, both cast to perfection) live paranoid and strung-out lives in a small house in California; however, despite developing an addiction to a dangerous hallucinogenic called Substance D, Reeves is actually an undercover narc surveilling the activities within the house and his circle of burn-out friends, including anxious user Cochrane and dependent dealer Ryder. Driven by its distinct visuals (filmed digitally, then animated frame-by-frame using rotoscope), the scrambled narrative switchbacks and occasionally dragging pace work better on the page than on the screen—as is typical with most drug-influenced fiction—but its intelligence is undeniable, performances on point, tragedy unshakable. Alex Jones has a cameo, appropriately as a lunatic street prophet with a bullhorn.

73/100