A Scanner Darkly is the literary work of noted Science Fiction author Phillip K. Dick, who gave us such fare as Blade Runner and Starship Troopers - at least the original novelette forms of these stories. This time it is the accomplished Texas filmaker Richard Linklater who brings us this dark and paranoia-soaked look at the war on drugs.

The story is set in Anaheim, California in a near future where even more territory has been lost in the war on drugs. Keanu Reeves is our main character, a Narcotics Agent hell bent on rooting out the source of a powerful drug called substance D. He goes undercover, so deep undercover he has all but succombed to the junkie lifestyle. He uses technology called a scramble suit to cloak his identity when trying to infiltrate the cartels. He encounters a supplier played by Wynnona Ryder who seems to have and endless supply of Substance D. (No, she didn't shoplift it.)

Along the way we explore the horrific hallucinations of a junkie character played by Linklater alum Rory Cochrane, who imagines himself internally infested with insects. He is so paranoid he'll drop the dime on anyone he knows. This is essentially the dark, inverse Doppelganger to his equally credible character in 1993's Dazed and Confused. A film that announced LinkLater's arrival as a talent to be reckoned with.

The film takes many dark turns, exploring both the down side of the drug culture and a Nixon Administration-like government strangely commited to fighting it using whatever bit of chicanery the founding fathers may have overlooked. We don't get a great climax at the end, but the film is certainly more about the journey than the destination. I must make mention of a great scene with Reeves character using his scramble suit to find out one of his buddies is a rat. Truly chilling.

Like his 2001 existentialist meditation Waking Life, Linklater utilizes rotoscope animation, wherein you animate digitally over traditionally shot footage to create a lifelike moving yet surreal landscape. It comes in handy when displaying the nightmarish hallucinations of the main characters or the scramble suit of Reeves character. Not to mention bringing this city to life in a way that makes it just as important a character as Cochrane, Reeves, Ryder, Robert Downey Jr. Woody Harrelson et. al.