Movie Details
| Title: | A Scanner Darkly | |
| Director: | Richard Linklater | |
| Year: | 2006 | |
| Genre: | Science Fiction | |
| Times Seen: | 2 | |
| Last Seen: | 07.14.06 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (12)
- Bad News Bears
- Before Midnight
- Before Sunrise
- Before Sunset
- Bernie
- Boyhood
- Dazed and Confused
- Everybody Wants Some!!
- Fast Food Nation
- Me and Orson Welles
- School of Rock
- Slacker
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 07.14.06 | Alamo South Lamar | Seeing it again... this time with composer Graham Reynolds doing a little mini-concert beforehand, playing about a half hour's worth of music from the film with his little set-up down in front of the stage. It was pretty cool actually... especiallly his introductions, trying to give context to the music without giving anything away from the film itself. They ended up being "so... at one point Kanoonu's walking down a hallway... there's a lot of him walking down hallways in this movie... and this is what you hear" My second take on the movie... well, My initial SXSW thoughts were that I liked it... but as the months went by my memories of the film kind of wilted to the point where I thought it was kind of a disappointment. Well... As far as I remember, the only thing that changed between the South By print and what I saw tonight were the end credits... maybe a bit of music tweaking... but that's about it. And I liked it! I still think Keanu's character isn't set up well enough, and there's a scene almost at the very end that kind of still rings cop-out explanation... but aside from that I really enjoyed myself... Happily surprised that the movie's as good as my initial thought instead of after I had all that time to question my mid-festival judgement. |
| 03.15.06 | Paramount | This Screening is part of event: South by Southwest 2006 A little more rested, I parked in a garage I hate and got in line for some music documentary. Calling Jarrette to ask what time he'd be showing up to get in line for the secret "TBA" screening of Scanner Darkly (that pretty much everyone in the world knew about by that time), he officially advised me to skip the movie and just stay in line. It's a good thing too because I was FIRST and that line went around the block and all the way back to Brazos just about... and that's just badge holders. God know how many film pass people tried to get in and there were even a few single ticket buyers who were obviously either insane or bored enough to stay in line when virtually every film badge and many curious gold/platinum badges were in line next to them. What's more is that this was a crew screening as well so there were about 500 VIPs who had special tickets and got to go in before the badgeholders. so did I mention that I was first in the badgeholder line? That's important when I mention that Aaron and Kaela and Jarrette and a bunch of other people got in on Harry's special reserved list and got to go in before even the crew VIPs... because by the time us first 50 badgeholders got through the doors the theater was already well on it's way to being full. Luckily, Aaron and Kaela saved Blake and I seats right in our favorite row so I got like the perfect seat for the screening. Unbelievable. Before that though, most of the press were the second, third, etc. to show up so I got to meet the GreenCine dude and talk to the rotten tomatoes dude again and for a while it was just a little film press camp-out happening in the badgeholder's line before the whole town showed up. That was cool... plus Jarrette and Aaron and Kaela showed up so it was a fun line-up if you ask me. Also for a long-storied reason, Aaron was hanging out with Patton Oswalt (Comedians of Comedy)... so when he came to get his wife and said "I'm taking the beautiful ladies inside but we'll try to save seats for you guys" Patton grabbed my arm and said "I meant him" as if to pull me instead of Kaela. Sure it doesn't sound funny all typed out like this, but hey... Patton Oswalt involved me in an impromptu joke so screw all y'all. Aaron spotted Lucky mcKee (director of May and the Masters of Horror episode Sick Girl) in the line and went down to talk to him. He was nice enough to introduce me as well so I got to meet Lucky freakin' McKee... then after we were back up at the head of the line (because I was first), he mentioned that I should ask him to be in my doc. Duh! So i go back and say I'm doing a doc on the Alamo drafthouse and immediately his eyes light up, so I ask if i can interview him and he immediately says sure, he'd be happy to. Is it always this easy? So we talk a little bit more, he gives me his info (see, always carrying around this notebook does come in handy sometimes), then I asked him about the possibility of seeing The Woods any time soon and we talked about that for a bit. Man, nice dude! So not only did I meet him but I also now have the means to talk to him again and a reason to do so. Lucky freakin' McKee! So. Now that I've covered everything that happened while I was in line... I have to mention that I did see the movie as well. Dentler came out and said it was the first showing to a mass audience ever so we're all very lucky to see it and very lucky to even get in the damn place. But then he said unfortunately Rick couldn't be there so there wouldn't be a Q&A afterward or anything like that. At this point Jarrette looks behind us and turns back with a smile on his face. Since he worked on the movie I figure he knows something so I look back too and Rick Linklater's sitting about four roows back from us right on the aisle. I guess since this is an unfinished print and it's more a crew screening than any sort of sneak preview or premiere he doesn't want to treat it like it's done by doing a Q&A... or maybe he just doesn't feel like it or something... or maybe he had to leave in 5 minutes or something... but any way you put it Matt Dentler is a liar (if, on some miracle, you ever read this while simultaneously knowing who I am, i meant that in the best possible way, Matt). The movie... well the animation is gorgeous. Every frame of the scramble suits are unbelievable and I couldn't take my eyes off them. Constant fascination for the whole movie. It's a much more consistent style than Waking Life, and also much more detailed. Basically most of the movie looks just as good as the stills they've released online. Having not read the script or the original story, I for whatever reason expected the movie to get to more of a No Way Out tension-y sort of place by the end, which it totally didn't. Instead, it's really a Linklater movie, just told in the near-future and animated. It's pretty slow-paced, definitely not actiony or adrenaline-fueled... but still very engaging and interesting. Thinking back, I'm actually thinking of Drugstore Cowboy more than anything. Great performances though, especially by Downey, Jr. Keanu's pretty passive through the whole thing but Rory Cochran's great, Woody Harrelson's great, and... well Winona's not in it that much but she's not bad either. fills the role nicely. It's really cool though, for this science fiction movie to really be a little drug movie literally in disguise. So my initial reaction is that I liked it quite a bit. I think a second viewing, having the benefit of knowing where the story goes and how it ends, will be very interesting. |
