Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel of a dystopian drug culture is a fine work that finds multiple points of relevance with current social issues and ills.  The story unfolds about a household of users addicted to Substance D, but one of the druggies is actually an undercover agent looking to find out who is manufacturing the psychoactive substance.  As he tries to climb the ladder of accountability, he spirals deeper into dependence and a warped sense of the real.  The film calls into question the idea of a society where surveillance is omnipresent, where shadowy government agencies manipulate their own operatives, the possibly sinister aims of drug-recovery programs, the paranoid threat of terrorism, and the decadence of an over-medicated world.  A Scanner Darkly is indeed a dark film, yet the rotoscoping technique used to move the imagery just one shade away from reality draws you in to the drama.

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