Page 8
ARTS & LIFE
The Clarion \ January 26, 2007
DVD Review: A Scanner Darkly
KEANU REEVES
A SCANNER
EVEHmiNG IS 1V0T
GOING TO BE OK
by Zack Harding
Arts & Life Editor
A Scanner Darlly
Richard Linllater
Keanu Reeves, Woody
Harrelson, Robert Downey
Jr., Winona Ryder
Warner Independent, 2006
The recent DVD release,^ Scan
ner Darkly is definitely a unique
experience in the world of movies,
and can be appreciated on many
different levels.
The movie is based on Phillip K
Dick’s 1977 book of the same
name. It stars Keanu Reeves as
undercover drug agent Bob Arctor,
and is set in the near future. The
plot revolves around a group of
individuals heavily involved with
drug culture, where a drug simply
called “substance d” has addicted
a great deal of the population in
the future; the United States has
lost it’s war on drugs.
The majority of the movie de
tails Arctor’s relationship with his
housemate drug addicts, played by
Woody Harrelson and Robert
Downey Jr, and with Arctor’s
own addiction to substance d and
its implications on his job.
Harrelson and Downey are ex
tremely believable in their drug-
addled
ramblings
and are at
times hi
larious; this
is one of
the real
highlights
in the
mostly
darker
themed
movie.
Another
sub plot is
Arctor’s
relation
ship with
his girl-
friend
Donna
Hawthorne,
played by
Winona
Ryder.
Their rela-
tionship
and the
way that it
pans out
over the movie is executed very
well.
The movie was shot with live
actors and then animated over us
ing a process called rotoscoping.
much like director Richard
Linklater’s2001 film. The Waking
Life. This rotoscoping technique
creates a very surreal visual expe
rience, at times extremely realistic
and at times psychedelic and jit
tery.
One of the more interesting parts
of the movie is that everyone in
the undercover drug agency wears
what is called a “scramble suit”
that constantly morphs their en
tire appearance to look like an ever-
changing mesh of different human
faces and clothes. This suit is re
quired to keep the agents anony
mous to each other to allow for an
objective relationship in their un
dercover drug culture activities. It
is hard to imagine how much ani
mation and time must have gone
into the making of this film.
There are several plot turns and
twists that most viewers probably
won’t expect, though the plot is
never so far removed as to be too
hard to follow. The ending of the
movie is pretty unorthodox and
jumps out with little warning, leav
ing the viewer to answer a lot of
things on their own, but that is
intended. This is a one of a kind
film to watch, and succeeds with
it’s technology, acting, and plot. I
give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Nominations put Oscar season in full swing
By Richard Coleman &
Nicholas Rys
Daily Collegian (Penn State)
U-WIRE) UNIVERSITY
PARK, Pa. - February is ap
proaching which means Oscar sea
son is in full throttle. The nomi
nations were announced Tuesday,
yielding the predictable choices
and some interesting surprises.
One of those surprises being
"Dreamgirls," which leads the race
with eight nominations — three of
which for Best Original Song —
but none of which include Best
Picture. In the Best Picture cat
egory, there are the expected con
tenders - "Babel," "The De
parted," "The Queen" — but the
big surprise nomination this year
is "Little Miss Sunshine," also
nominated for Best Supporting
Actor (Alan Arkin) and Best Sup
porting Actress (Abigail Breslin).
Martin Scorsese ("The De
parted") will try his luck against
Clint Eastwood ("Letters from
Iwo Jima") once again for the Best
Directing award, but there will be
stiff competition from Paul
Greengrass ("United 93"),
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Ba
bel"), and Stephen Frears ("The
Queen").
In the category of Best Actor,
Will Smith ("The Pursuit of
Happyness") will try to beat out
Golden Globe winner Forest
Whitaker ("The Last King of Scot
land"), first-time nominee Ryan
Gosling ("Half Nelson"), and old-
timer Peter O'Toole ("Venus").
Leonardo DiCaprio is also in the
race, but surprisingly not repre
senting "The Departed," but in
stead for his performance in
"Blood Diamond."
The favorites in the category of
Best Actress are veteran actresses
Helen Mirren ("The Queen") and
Judi Dench ("Notes on a Scandal").
However, Meryl Streep ("The
Devil Wears Prada"), Kate Winslet
("Little Children") and Penelope
Cruz (" Volver") will provide tough
competition.
The unscripted comedy "Borat:
Cultural Learnings of America for
Make Benefit Glorious Nation of
Kazakhstan" is unexpectedly
nominated for Best Screenplay
Based on Material Previously Pro
duced or Published. It will face
some tough competition from "The
Departed" and "Children of Men"
while "Notes from a Scandal" and
"Little Children" will be the dark-
horse nominees.
As far as Best Original Screen
play goes, "Babel," "The Queen"
and "Letters from Iwo Jima" look
to be the favorites but "Pan's Laby
rinth" and "Little Miss Sunshine"
have some potential to walk away
with the award.
The ceremony will be held at 8
p.m., Sunday, Feb. 25 and will be
hosted by Ellen Degeneres.