A meandering trip laced with gonzo stoner soliloquies and drug-addled paranoia whose sum never really comes close to exceeding its — admittedly super intriguing — constituent sci-fi parts (scramble suits, Substance D, holo-scanners, mind/body fissures, insurgent factions vying for control over the mysterious blue flower, etc.). My qualms with A Scanner Darkly have more to do with the PKD source material (which I recently finished reading and found more frustratingly incoherent than enlightening) than this mostly faithful adaptation featuring a moody Radiohead soundtrack and fun performances all around (RDJ as Barris is certainly a highlight). Overall, a solid work of scanner cinema, second only to Scanners.
