Another visual treat, but in a deliberately mannered way... "animatsised" is what i'm going to call it..as if the image has been "drawn over" or coated with blocky pantone colours.
Richard Linklater
..did this bloke INVENT the word "Slacker"?...and "Waking Life",( which i should check out now).. apparently used the same technique...
This is an adaptation of a Philip K Dick novel, (none of which i have read) .. best known for "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" ,which , of course became "Bladerunner" ..this could be set to become another "stoner classic"...(I grew out of all that twenty years ago of course...)
Keanu Reeves is perfectly cast , as are Wynona Ryder ( the "old" Natalie Portman),Woody Harrellson and Robert Downey Jr...who's persona cannot be contained by the layer of unreality, that the animation brings...the score is also great , with a quirky guitar theme that reminds me of "Eels" at their best and ."Radiohead" also provide some of the sounds..(this would be around the time of "Kid A"
" Amnesiac" and "Hail to the Thief")
The book was written in 1977,and the intervening years have almost realised all of the "Orwellian" surveillance ("Scanning") society ,we see here, mobile phone triangulation via GPS,tiny camera technology, "profiling " on databases ... and as "future dystopias" go, the title screen may aswell say "next week" ..
"seven years from now"
seems like a token gesture ..but no matter...
The one bit of overt "Sci Fi" , is the "scramble suit" which is visually mesmerising and irritating in equal measure...the latest in undercover surviellance technology..being employed in the "War on Drugs"...
It's ultimately downbeat,but I found this very funny ,clever and life -affirming , despite the obvious themes of "disconnect" alienation, and self destructive drug use...the end titles confirm that this must be largely auto-biographical, as a list of drug casualties , friends of Philip K, appear ...
The central character's predicament ,from what i can gather,also mirrors Dick's own ...addiction to prescription and "over the counter" drugs effectively putting you under the thumb of the big drug multi-corporations...the multi-nationals that are increasingly running the developed World..
Sounds like a real bummer doesn't it?..but the fate of Keanu's character provides hope