A Scanner Darkly

Keanu has never been so animated

A Scanner Darkly brings Philip K. Dick’s semi-autobiographical novel to the screen in rotoscope animation, with Keanu Reeves (The Matrix), Winona Ryder (Beetlejuice), Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers), and Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) drifting through a near-future Southern California soaked in surveillance and Substance D. Directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused), the film blurs reality and hallucination as an undercover cop begins to lose his identity while spying on his own friends. The shifting, animated visuals mirror the characters’ fractured minds, turning addiction and paranoia into something both intimate and unsettling. Does this stylized adaptation capture the tragic heart of Dick’s story, or do the psychedelic visuals overwhelm the substance beneath? The Now Playing hosts tune in to decide whether A Scanner Darkly offers clarity or just one long, bad trip.

{Philip K. Dick Series}