A Scanner Darkly

So I caught this free screening of A Scanner Darkly yesterday night at The Arts House, a movie I've been wanting to watch.

Its post-production technique has been talked about a lot, this was really, entirely an animation film for adults. I think the form works for this show- afterall, it's a show about a dystopian society crippled by a drug called Substance D that stands for "dumbness and despair, desertion - desertion of you from your friends, your friends from you, everyone from everyone. Isolation and loneliness... and hating and suspecting each other, "D" is finally death. Slow death from the head down. Well... that's it".

And there are so many good quotes in this film.

Was a bit slow-moving in the beginning but the animation entertained a little - I really think this was an awesome plot (Have never read Philip K Dick's novels but I know I should). Its that sort of identity-crisis existential shizz which I like anyway.

A Scanner Darkly left me leaving the room more groggy and lethargic than usual... Then again, it must have been the combination of it and the flu bug that's been hopping around in the office. Anyhow, I was glad I went and for free too! A mix between Fight Club and Trainspotting, A Scanner Darkly reaches the same conclusion albeit a more personal one. In the final roll, Philip (but he's not the director) dedicated the show or rather, his book, to following friends - most of whom deceased or suffering severe bodily or mental damage from use of drugs. Message well put across I say.

"What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me? Into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly because I can't any longer see into myself. I see only murk. I hope for everyone's sake the scanners do better, because if the scanner sees only darkly the way I do, then I'm cursed and cursed again."