Movies Mayberry Movie Club Week 10: A Scanner Darkly (2006)

What's your rating for this film?

  • 1 Star: Fuck this piece of shit.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    17
I liked the animation. Fell asleep from all the talking. Not my cup of tea. But cool to be exposed to roto rootering or whatever this type of animation is called. My favourite part was the blurry identity changing disguise stuff. I would focus on a part of the character and just watch that area change. Made it hard to follow the dialogue. I'm a super visual person, so this actually was the most entertaining part for me.

I'm a little disappointed nobody really wanted to discuss this film, so I'll just add a little myself because at this point its too late. Philip K. Dick is reflected in a number of ways in this story/film because his wife had left him and the local drug addicts had moved into the house with him and they were super paranoid, like next level paranoid that the house was bugged by the F.B.I. I think that's one reason why there are so many bug references, but with Dick, reality is always layered, we see it even in his most famous works that spawned films like Blade Runner.

Identity politics as well as individual identity played a big part in Dick's thought life and its pretty widely accepted he suffered from schizophrenia. So in the film we see this reflected in this notion that several characters were actually multiple characters, most notably Keanu and Wynona.

Keanu was Bob Arctor, but he was also known as Fred at work, and at the end he was Bruce after going to New Paths.
Wynona was Bob Arctor's girlfriend Donna Hawthorne, she was also Fred's boss Hank, and her true identity was Audrey.

The idea here really reflects how paranoid Philip K. Dick was because nobody is what they seem. Even the guy at New Patch that tells Keanu he is going to the farm, is the same guy at the end who is talking to Donna in the cafe. Bob Arctor's girlfriend Donna is an undercover cop who is also his boss Hank, but who in reality is Audrey and Audrey sold Keanu Reeves down the river in the name of the greater good. Think about how convoluted this is. Fred, who is Bob Arctor's work name, is trying to bust Substance D distributors and his highest contact that sells it is Donna. So when Bob goes to work, as Fred, to discuss his Substance D contact Donna, which his boss Hank.....he's still talking to Donna. Donna is his dealer, and his boss H, and Donna/Hank isn't even her name. She is as cold blooded as they come.
 
I saw this in some art house theatre when it first came out. I liked it, it was very different. I wouldn’t mind watching it again sometime.
 
I'm a little disappointed nobody really wanted to discuss this film, so I'll just add a little myself because at this point its too late.

I blame @sickc0d3r.

Identity politics as well as individual identity played a big part in Dick's thought life and its pretty widely accepted he suffered from schizophrenia. So in the film we see this reflected in this notion that several characters were actually multiple characters, most notably Keanu and Wynona.

As we saw, just because someone is paranoid doesn't mean there isn't someone out to get them.
 
At times this movie reminded me of Brazil, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and Naked Lunch. I guess that's a good thing.
 
As we saw, just because someone is paranoid doesn't mean there isn't someone out to get them.

Donna was a real bitch. As Donna she encouraged Bob Arctor played by Keanu to become addicted to Substance D, undercover though, so nobody knows she's a cop. Then as Hank she fires Bob Arctor and sends him to New Path as a brain dead victim. Then as Audrey she says, oh, I feel so bad, I have to get out of this job. Ok, fine Donna/Hank/Audrey, but you fucked over Bob/Fred/Bruce. Now here is where it gets even more fucked up. They planted subliminal ideas in Bob's head like when Donna says I want to go away to a little cabin in the mountains around nature, which is where Bob was sent by New Path when his mind was nuked sufficiently. They also told Bob to give Donna "blue flowers" if he loved her.

Here is the insidious part. Bob/Fred/Bruce didn't know the plan. When he picks the blue flower at the end to "give to his friends", he doesn't know this has been the plan all along to expose who is making Substance D. All this shit to get Bob's mind nuked and him in the New Path program was so Bob himself could discover the plan. Bob was never privy to the plan. They placed it in his mind.

Donna was such an uber backstabber, she also got all the dirt she needed to put Barris, Robert Downey Jr., away as a terrorist. I mean really, Bob, Barris, and Ernie (Woody Harrelson) were just 3 guys that were messed up taking drugs but they didn't deserve what Donna did to them. Although Barris was an asshole, and in the book he also was responsible for all sorts of fuckery like he was the one that cut the lines on the car when it broke down. Still though, fuck Donna. But Wynona was hot in this film, amarite?
 
Donna was a real bitch. As Donna she encouraged Bob Arctor played by Keanu to become addicted to Substance D, undercover though, so nobody knows she's a cop. Then as Hank she fires Bob Arctor and sends him to New Path as a brain dead victim. Then as Audrey she says, oh, I feel so bad, I have to get out of this job. Ok, fine Donna/Hank/Audrey, but you fucked over Bob/Fred/Bruce. Now here is where it gets even more fucked up. They planted subliminal ideas in Bob's head like when Donna says I want to go away to a little cabin in the mountains around nature, which is where Bob was sent by New Path when his mind was nuked sufficiently. They also told Bob to give Donna "blue flowers" if he loved her.

Here is the insidious part. Bob/Fred/Bruce didn't know the plan. When he picks the blue flower at the end to "give to his friends", he doesn't know this has been the plan all along to expose who is making Substance D. All this shit to get Bob's mind nuked and him in the New Path program was so Bob himself could discover the plan. Bob was never privy to the plan. They placed it in his mind.

Donna was such an uber backstabber, she also got all the dirt she needed to put Barris, Robert Downey Jr., away as a terrorist. I mean really, Bob, Barris, and Ernie (Woody Harrelson) were just 3 guys that were messed up taking drugs but they didn't deserve what Donna did to them. Although Barris was an asshole, and in the book he also was responsible for all sorts of fuckery like he was the one that cut the lines on the car when it broke down. Still though, fuck Donna. But Wynona was hot in this film, amarite?

Can't argue that Donna was unscrupulous towards the other characters. And yeah, she was pretty hot in rotoscope. :D

What's funny is that after the stuck accelerator incident they really did arrive home to find the person out to get them there. We just didn't know it at the time.
 
Can't argue that Donna was unscrupulous towards the other characters. And yeah, she was pretty hot in rotoscope. :D

What's funny is that after the stuck accelerator incident they really did arrive home to find the person out to get them there. We just didn't know it at the time.

Right, Donna was there, and she said she smoked a joint, which she didn't because she's a liar. I think this was more reflecting on what Dick was experiencing as he lived in the house with the other guys, being strung out and paranoid as fuck of everyone there. At one point Dick called the cops and told them someone broke into the house and broke into his safe and stole only his personal notes. The police said they thought Dick did it himself. That's the level of shit that was going on.
 
Right, Donna was there, and she said she smoked a joint, which she didn't because she's a liar. I think this was more reflecting on what Dick was experiencing as he lived in the house with the other guys, being strung out and paranoid as fuck of everyone there. At one point Dick called the cops and told them someone broke into the house and broke into his safe and stole only his personal notes. The police said they thought Dick did it himself. That's the level of shit that was going on.

Had no idea Dick was such a druggie. Would have been fun to see him, Burroughs, Hunter Thompson, and Hubert Selby Jr. huddled up at a cocktail party.
 
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