In 2006, Richard Linklater adapted Philip K Dick’s A Scanner Darkly for the screen.
The result is something unique: an animation with the loose, semi-improvised feel of a live-action drama.
Along the way, however,A Scanner Darklyrevels in its own kind of bleak humour.
), while these moments of humour are contrasted by Bobs quietly moving internal monologues.
Nothing would ever change; nothing new could ever be expected.
It had to end, and it did.
ItsA Scanner Darklys portrait of addiction that really resonates, however.
But that was for a period of just about a year.
And then I just took amphetamines.
I have never ever taken hard drugs.
And this was permanent, this was for the rest of their lives.
So I wroteA Scanner Darkly.
Its this personal angle that madeA Scanner Darklythe most powerful novel Philip K Dick ever wrote.
Both the book and the film show us a group of characters sleepwalking to oblivion.
Arctor, along with the luckless Freck, are fictional embodiments of the lives Dick saw ruined by addiction.
Its a low-key yet satisfying end to Dicks thriller plot.
But as the final credits roll, were suddenly reminded of the real-world experiences that inspired the story.
Let them play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.
A Scanner Darklyis so effective because it blends hallucination with reality.
In its final moment, fiction reconnects with reality like a sledgehammer knocking down a brick wall.
