A Scanner Darkly

It's hard to explain this movie, especially without spoilers. There's just no way I can do it justice. It's artsy and experimental; on one hand it's eye-candy, on another it's social commentary. I keep wanting to compare it to Sin City, even though they're absolutely nothing alike.

So let's start with the reviews. When I first read about A Scanner Darkly, I was afraid that I wouldn't like the plot. Having seen similar reviews of Sin City, I prepared myself for a very pretty movie with plenty to see, but nothing I wanted to remember. Actually, the reviews kind of made it sound like an animated Dazed and Confused, one of my least favorite movies of all time.

Scanner is sci-fi, in that it takes place in the near future, and has some advanced technology. I'm really not sure why this is neccessary. The "Scanners" - Big Brother types who keep tabs on drug addicts - wear these bizzare high-tech constantly-morphing outfits to hide their true identities. Neat concept, but in the end they could have accomplished the same thing just by wearing any all-over concealing costume. I don't want my tax dollars going toward these 100-million-dollar suits when they could accomplish the same thing with a parka and a Darth Vader mask. It's not like they were disguising themselves as specific other people; they were disguising themselves as "every man".

The plot revolves around a futuristic drug, (again, it's nothing so fantastic that it had to be sci-fi), the people who are doing this drug, and the people who are trying to arrest the users. The movie's highlights are actually the drug-induced ramblings of the main characters... I guess in that respect, it is like Dazed and Conused, only this time the conversations are actually funny. It's the perfect amount of humor, too. Just enough to keep you entertained, but not enough to make drug use actually look inviting. It's a great balance - the users are the heroes of the movie, but it still manages to deliver a strong anti-drug message. At least to those of us who were paying attention.

Update: Btw, you can watch the first 24 minutes of the movie here:
http://media.filmforce.ign.com/media/670/670907/vids_1.html