An undercover narcotics officer involved with a circle of users and dealers finds himself losing his mind to the dangerous drug Substance D.
Although dismissed as a niche creator of pulpy science fiction while still alive, Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) is now regarded as one of the most important and influential post-war American writers. His paranoid worldview and imaginative explorations of the nature of reality have inspired several successful films based on his work, most notably Blade Runner, Minority Report, and Total Recall.
Richard Linklater is an Austin, Texas-based filmmaker who made his name on the independent film circuit in the 1990's with his debut release Slacker, its now cult-classic follow-up Dazed and Confused, and the Gen-X romance Before Sunrise. Linklater marked a significant change in his career with the animated film Waking Life, which examined states of consciousness and various existential/metaphysical questions. The unique approach of animating over live-action footage of actors is a technique carried over into A Scanner Darkly.
The cast includes Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder, and Woody Harrelson. The film shoot occured partially on location in Orange County, California (where Dick was a long-time resident), and was completed in less than a month, with the animation process taking an additional year and a half.
While set in the near-future, A Scanner Darkly is one of Dick's most autobiographical works, reflecting back on his experiences in the drug culture of the 1960's and early 1970's and sympathetic to those around him damaged by years of abuse. Linklater's adaptation is without a doubt the most faithful of films based on Dick's stories, and because of its subject matter bears the deepest connection to the man himself.
Running time is approx. 100 minutes.
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