Through a Rotoscope, Darkly
Jul. 16th, 2006 07:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saavedra77You know, I think that A Scanner Darkly might be my favorite Philip K. Dick adaptation, my favorite Richard Linkletter film, and the most visually compelling use of the rotoscoping technique that I've seen, to date.
The story involves the usual Philip Dick tropes: an atmosphere of simmering uncertainty and paranoia; problems with memory, consciousness, and identity; doubts about the texture of reality; and, of course, conspiracy and betrayal--but in a less flashy, more meditative style than, say, Blade Runner. And as we saw in Waking Life, Linkletter shares many of these preoccupations.
The film's visuals reinforce the themes of uncertainty and paranoia: a murky, shifting simulacra of life as lived by a handful of junkies. The rotoscoping enables the director to enhance that murkiness and uncertainty. But the animation is overlaid onto live action footage in a way that gives it more depth and solidity than in, for example, Linkletter's 2000 Waking Life. I could almost feel the Southern California sunlight and smell the gasoline, sweat, cat litter, and pot smoke.
Also, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane are like the junkie version of the Three Stooges: Downey does a slightly sinister version of his usual manic scammer (Moe on speed), Harrelson is goofy (Larry as pothead), Cochrane is twitchy (psychedelic Curly/Shemp). And they play off one another to wonderful comic effect--which is a bit of a relief, given the story's aura of fear and confusion.
And, yes, of course, and there's Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. The former plays a more downbeat, damaged character than we've seen from him, before--but it's still basically Keanu. Winona's character is less visible, more of a puzzle--not her usual thing, at all, really. It's an interesting performance, albeit much less entertaining than Downey, Harrelson, and Cochrane's paranoid Moe, Larry, and Curly.
The story involves the usual Philip Dick tropes: an atmosphere of simmering uncertainty and paranoia; problems with memory, consciousness, and identity; doubts about the texture of reality; and, of course, conspiracy and betrayal--but in a less flashy, more meditative style than, say, Blade Runner. And as we saw in Waking Life, Linkletter shares many of these preoccupations.
The film's visuals reinforce the themes of uncertainty and paranoia: a murky, shifting simulacra of life as lived by a handful of junkies. The rotoscoping enables the director to enhance that murkiness and uncertainty. But the animation is overlaid onto live action footage in a way that gives it more depth and solidity than in, for example, Linkletter's 2000 Waking Life. I could almost feel the Southern California sunlight and smell the gasoline, sweat, cat litter, and pot smoke.
Also, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane are like the junkie version of the Three Stooges: Downey does a slightly sinister version of his usual manic scammer (Moe on speed), Harrelson is goofy (Larry as pothead), Cochrane is twitchy (psychedelic Curly/Shemp). And they play off one another to wonderful comic effect--which is a bit of a relief, given the story's aura of fear and confusion.
And, yes, of course, and there's Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. The former plays a more downbeat, damaged character than we've seen from him, before--but it's still basically Keanu. Winona's character is less visible, more of a puzzle--not her usual thing, at all, really. It's an interesting performance, albeit much less entertaining than Downey, Harrelson, and Cochrane's paranoid Moe, Larry, and Curly.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 05:15 am (UTC)Yeah, the competition's not all that strong, is it? I think Blade Runner's the only other one I'd go to see a second time.
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Date: 2006-07-17 05:22 pm (UTC)And how many PKD adaptions have there been, besides Blade Runner and Total Recall?
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Date: 2006-07-17 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-17 08:56 pm (UTC)Y'know, I actually own a tape of the VALIS opera and, I'm sorry to say, I've never actually listened to it....