Independent Film Guide

What It's About
A few years into the future, America has become a dystopian society overrun with addicts hooked on a powerful new psychotropic, Substance D. Keanu Reeves plays an undercover agent working to infiltrate the drug cartels but instead becomes addicted to the drug himself. Winona Ryder is his touch-averse drug-dealing girlfriend; Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson are his paranoid, drug-addled roomies. More than Reeve's job is on the line when he's ordered to surveil his house -- can he hide his addiction from the higher-ups on the force? Oh, and did we mention that 'Scanner' is made via a process called ''interpolated rotoscoping'' -- where live action is colored over so that the final result is a surrealistic hybrid of animation and real people? (The same method was used in Richard Linklater's 'Waking Life.')

Why You Should See It Linklater captures the malignant darkness of drug abuse and a sinister Big Brother-esque government. The animation process succeeds in conveying a hypnotizing feel to the film, a sense that's further imparted by the Radiohead-heavy soundtrack. And seeing Hollywood eccentrics Downey Jr., Harrelson and Ryder as partially animated paranoid slackers is a trip unto itself.

Track Record From his breakthrough flick, the 1991 cult comedy 'Slacker,' Linklater has been something of an indie god. And though he scored a mainstream hit with 2003's raucous 'School of Rock,' other forays into wide-releasedom haven't been so well received ('Bad News Bears,' anyone?).

Unforgettable Scene On a road trip, the accelator pedal gets stuck, sending Reeves, Downey Jr. and Harrelson careening down a crowded L.A. freeway. It's certainly not the most spectacular car-out-of-control scene on film, but the animation gives it all a dreamy feel that quickly turns to nightmare. And their reaction after they've stopped the car and escaped with their lives is more delusional hilarity than serious reaction to a near-death experience.

Source Material 'Scanner' comes with a bona fide A-list sci-fi pedigree: Linklater adapted the screenplay from a novel by Philip K. Dick (on whose novel 'Blade Runner' is based; his short stories are the basis for 'Minority Report,' 'Total Recall' and 'Paycheck'). The themes in 'Scanner' -- drug abuse, leading a double life -- purportedly touch on Dick's own drug abuse and possible schizophrenia.

Recommended If You Liked
'Waking Life'
'Minority Report'
'Gattaca'
'The Conversation'
'Enemy of the State'

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