A Scanner Darkly
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP) | Release Date: July 7, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The most impressive thing about the film's technical wizardry is, finally, how unimpressive it is. One doesn't leave the movie with a mind blown by visual bedazzlement but with a soul shattered by the profound sense of tragedy Linklater and company so beautifully put across. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The casting of Reeves in the lead role is inspired: who better than the star of "The Matrix" and its sequels, a trilogy that borrows heavily from Dick's sensibility and obsessions, to play a personality split through overindulgence in drugs and manipulation by outside forces he barely recognizes? Read full review
91
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Probably the most faithful to the writer's tortured spirit. It's the kind of movie that gets under your skin - and stays there. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
The brilliance of A Scanner Darkly is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverRob Nelson
What a breath of fresh air this stifling, claustrophobic, boldly uningratiating vision of an American subculture's last gasp imparts to its contrarian core audience. (Call me a hopeless addict: I've seen it three times.) Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Without its animation, A Scanner Darkly would have made a fine cautionary tale about drug addiction, paranoia and institutional treachery in a police state. But with a technique that turns the existing live action into a two-dimensional cartoon, the movie goes one -- maybe even 10 -- better. It becomes its own living, breathing metaphor. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
It's one of the most faithful movie adaptations of any Dick story to date, and it comes from the scariest of all his books, as well as the truest. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Downey, who, having grasped that he's playing a cartoon character, delivers the most animated performance. (Midway through 2006, this supporting turn is the performance to beat in what seems the year's American movie to beat.) Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyChristopher Orr
As they (Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson) bicker and banter, threaten one another with small household objects, and try (unsuccessfully) to determine the number of gears on a bicycle, they display a combination of irritability and incompetence that is the soul of comedy. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
There's no other filmmaker, living or dead, who could produce a futuristic sci-fi nightmare, a hipster comedy, a haunting film noir and a cartoon, all in the same movie. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
Its intelligence makes it near-essential viewing. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This gifted writer-director isn't out to dull the masses with cinematic opium. Embedded in the visionary headtrip of A Scanner Darkly is a hotly political call to arms. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
The film is weirdly fascinating in its own maverick way. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
But transforming full, live-action performances into quavering cartoons isn't inherently lyrical, and here it produces the jittery sense of a world dissolving into flat forms and buzzing prattle. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Doesn't quite live up to the promise of its opening sequence, but it's still an audacious offering during a season of brain-dead blockbusters. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter Hartlaub
The visual style and lethargic pace can be frustrating -- at least if you're sober -- but the animated tragedy is still a success. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
There's conspiracy here, as there is in all of Dick's books, and it wraps the film up with a moving but somewhat neat bowtie. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Turns out to be more ordinary than the recipe might suggest. Oh, it's dense and funny and assured, but it's also chatty and listless in a fashion that constrains a narrative film, which, however reluctantly, it is. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
With everything this film has going for it - humor, intelligence and a splendid ensemble - Richard Linklater's nightmare drug movie, A Scanner Darkly, should be continually compelling. But it loses its fizz after a strong series of pops. Read full review
70
VarietyJustin Chang
Deeply intriguing but almost too-faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's nightmarish 1977 novel. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Rotoscoping makes certain sense for a film about cognitive dissonance and alternative realities, though both the vocal and gestural performances by Mr. Reeves, Mr. Harrelson and, in particular, the wonderful Mr. Downey make me wish that we were watching them in live action. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Which makes it all the more frustrating that the film doesn't quite work, and that it drags from episode to episode--some are brilliant, most merely intriguing--with little momentum. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
As a whole, the film has too little character and/or plot development to sustain narrative interest. What A Scanner Darkly excels at is mood and tone. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
If ever there was a movie more destined to become a cult phenomenon, I don't know if I can name it. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Definitely not for everyone. It's a very bleak story with uneven pacing and a narrative whose jumps in time are confusing and occasionally infuriating. But the post-apocalyptic mood blends well with its uniquely stylized look and surreal story. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Smartly cast, in the sense that Reeves, gloomy and pained, and Harrelson, confused and explosive, both seem befuddled while Downey, as the devious, intellectual Barris, is befuddling. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Scanner is mostly all talk, and the talk is entertaining only when it's coming from Downey. The actor's long history of drug abuse taught him a thing or two about cooked behavior, and he gives some anxious run-on monologues that are very funny. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It's watchable, due to the rotoscoping technique...It's also as lightweight as the smoke rings blown by one of many perverse, dull characters. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
More than once during A Scanner Darkly, you find yourself wishing these characters would just shut up. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
Isn't as dark or sinister as its source material, but it comes closer than any other filmed attempts to this point. It may only be a decent movie, but it's a pretty fine PKD adaptation. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerDavid Hiltbrand
A rambling depiction of a junkie's descent into zombitude. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
In A Scanner Darkly, we're watching other people freak out, but the film is maddening to sit through because their freak-outs never become ours. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
Audiences will have to seek out their own peculiar diversions in order to last the whole course of this demi-dud. Read full review
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