A Scanner Darkly
Submitted by jim on Tue, 01/11/2005 - 05:16
Tags:
Remember the hand-painted live-action "animation" from Waking Life? Linklater is using the same approach in his adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. Ain't It Cool has some screenshots. Hmm, Linklater, Dick, and yes, Keanu. What a surprising, interesting combination! « via The Movie Blog »
As GreenCine Daily (I think) said, 'when was the last time anyone linked Ain't-It-Cool?"
That site has seriously jumped the shark. This year's BNAT was completely worthless compared to last years. I always hated their reviews, but they haven't had many good scoops lately.
It's easy to kick 'em when they're down, but I'm glad most of the scoops are appearing on better-designed sites :-)
Yeah, I'll generally link elsewhere, when I have alternatives. That site is just not my cup of tea. I don't read them, so only find myself there when somebody I do read has linked to them.
Even with Keanu, I'm excited. Glad to see that brilliant animation being used for a movie with a plot rather than a philosophy milkshake.
Can anyone doubt that Keanu Reeves is the perfect Arctor for Bob & Fred's Excellent Adventure? I will eschew any reference to "finely shaded performance" but this could be the finest marriage of performer and form the medium of film has ever seen. (Keep in mind that I have no special method to hinder the recollection of Johnny Mnemonic .) Keanu should be wonderful starring as the lead prop in A Scanner Darkly .
Unfortunately this means that A Scanner Darkly has become an all or nothing proposition. Richard Linklater has either made an artful choice in casting or he is attempting to plaster over some serious problems. In either case the signs aren't good for Philip K. Dick to finally be well-endowed by a movie treatment. These dysfunctional cases, to my complete rememberance, are Minority Report , Paycheck , Total Recall ("We Can Remember It For You Wholesale") and Blade Runner . That represents quite an acting Mt. Rushmore to loom over the frottage industry of Piqué Dick flicks.
Nevertheless, the mind boggles at the thought of the potential energy that might be converted into the K-man's performance at the denouement: "Whoah... Party on, Myself." It could be the ultimate addition to the Keanu Reeves oeuvre.
Once again, I apologize.
0dysseus, I warned you I'd steal your ideas! :-)
I'm flattered... it's the only kind of citation I look forward to. While I have no worries about your sourcing I do have mixed feelings about how Dana Stevens fills out her Slate.
Whoa.
frot·tage (frô-täzh
)
n.
Brilliant. A dig at Dick hangers-on, and a nod to the style of animation. I lie prostrate at your feet.
You did not find Bladerunner to be well-endowed?
I can't tell you how much I appreciate that what I wrote received such a fine textual, textural and textile reading. It was a lot of fun to write and I am very grateful for the attention (and reaction) that you and lukeprog have given it. So thank you, you're very encouraging.
False modesty allows me to mention just one of the many facets that I'm proud of...
pique (1) /pi:k/ v. & n. -v.tr. (piques, piqued, piquing)
1 wound the pride of, irritate.
2 arouse (curiosity, interest, etc.).
3 (refl.; usu. foll. by on) pride or congratulate oneself.
-n. ill-feeling; enmity; resentment (in a fit of pique).
[F piquer prick, irritate, f. Rmc]
and also:
piqué /'pi:kei/ n. a stiff ribbed cotton or other fabric. [F, past part. of piquer: see pique (1)]
I will take a stiff ribbing for my Dick rubbing anytime. Once again, I apologize but thank you so much.
Blade Runner was very enjoyable when I first saw it. Actually, it was more than "enjoyable." It was stunning.
Strip away the great cinematography and scene design, however, and I still think it is the best performance that Dick has acheived... but not as tremendous as I thought at first. [Let me just say how important I think the look of this movie was. After Ridley Scott's Alien and Blade Runner science fiction has never looked the same... just amazing.] Seeing Blade Runner: The Director's Cut on the big screen moved me towards this position. Gone was the hand-holding narration along with the optimistic ending and the film became the story of two couples of replicants in a race against time and each other. In P.K. Dick's stories the protagonists are always the source and the solution to the dramatic tension that exists and I don't think that this has been captured fully in any movie. If The Matrix was able to show how evil mechanical intelligences might play with the reality that we perceive all around us then The Great PKD Movie will show how our own consciousness(es) manipulate the reality that exists for us.
I have nothing but love for Roy Batty and the rest of the replicants and I think that William Gibson should be writing Scott and Dick monthly checks (as soon as the Wachowskis' checks clear, that is.) I'd be interested to know if you've seen the Director's Cut and if it gave you a feeling of closer to the mark (but still no bullseye.)
To cut it short (so to speak), Blade Runner (certainly The Director's Cut) can be proud of the endowment which it has received. I have, however, seen bigger.
It has been many moons since I've seen either Bladerunner and by now I can't remember the difference. I should remedy that, but I can't tell if the version Netflix carries is the theatrical release or the director's cut. Did you know this (emphasis added):
From the Amazon editorial review.
That's awesome! and it adds to my slowly accreting opinion of Harrison Ford as a perceptive critic of the movie business. It makes it tempting to revisit the original movie and what I had thought was Ford's world-weary narration. But that would be two hours that I could've wasted in a completely different and unremarkable way.
There are several interesting insights on that page. I'm not sure that Blade Runner's visual style was so much "a welcome antidote to the Star Wars formula when it was released" (recall the lethally venomous Ewoks) but a counterweight to the visual language of Star Trek. Evidently in Gene Roddenberry's vision of the 23rd century everyone will have their own lint brush. Unfortunately I may have to reread "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" because I have no memory of any "Do you like your owl?" significance. But I was impressed by the almost eight hundred customer reviews of the film. (That can't be normal.)
If what the Amazon-ians write is true (and I sincerely hope that it is) then I will wait for a truly very special DVD edition of the film to watch it again.
Luckily, I've only ever seen the director's cut of Blade Runner. I have no intention of ever seeing the original version.
I always thought frottage was the more specific act of rubbing one's clothed crotch against another for sexual gratification.
Anyway, not something I'm going to argue about.
But, an amusing (or disgusting, or both) anecdote:
I know a guy who, when in NINTH grade, used to convince his female peers to give him a piggy-back ride and he would get off on the motion. Once the girls could feel it on their neck, they'd stop giving him piggy back rides, and he'd move on to the next victim.
Ninth grade. Piggy back rides. I always thought that was very strange.
Oh, and BTW, I'm also rather in awe of Odysseus' use of 'frottage' here.
Yeah, between the director, the author, and the technique this one could really be special. And to be honest, while he's not an actor I love, Keanu disappoints me rarely. Odd.