A Scanner Darkly (2006)

The war on drugs has been lost, and when a reluctant undercover cop is ordered to spy on those he is closest to, the toll that the mission takes on his sanity is too great to comprehend in director Richard Linklater's rotoscoped take on Philip K. Dick's classic novel. With stratospheric concern over national security prompting paranoid government officials to begin spying on citizens, trust is a luxury and everyone is a suspected criminal until proven otherwise. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is a narcotics officer who is issued an order to spy on his friends and report back to headquarters. In addition to being a cop, though, Arctor is also an addict. His drug of choice is a ubiquitous street drug called Substance D, a drug known well for producing split personalities in its users.

                           
Review By Perry Seibert

Richard Linklater's decision to film his adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly in an animated style similar to his earlier film Waking Life exemplifies everything good about him as a filmmaker. By forcing viewers to constantly assess what and who they are looking at, Linklater is able to underscore the paranoid and Big Brother surveillance aspects of the story -- elements further enhanced when one recalls this film hit theaters around the time that surveillance tactics were a hotly contested political issue. Linklater does a fine job of opening up these topics for examination, and he even allows his audience to laugh at the same time. The drugged-out ramblings and misadventures of characters played by Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Rory Cochrane offer comic relief so humorous that it occasionally overwhelms the more serious aspects of the film. One gets the feeling that if Linklater ever wanted to have a giant box-office success he could make a great stoner comedy with the three of them. As funny and interesting as the entire film is, it falls short of entering the pantheon of great Linklater films mostly because the style of the film makes it hard to think of the characters in the film as real people. The audience will find it interesting when Keanu Reeves' undercover drug officer Bob Arctor slowly begins to lose himself in a haze of addiction, paranoia, and psychosis, but there is no sense of real human tragedy or loss. This lack of catharsis is underscored when, for the movie's end, Linklater appropriates Dick's personal note from the book where Dick dedicates it to a list of friends and acquaintances who have suffered from drug abuse. That simple list of names and afflictions carries more emotional weight than the film. Even if it is too cerebral by a hair, Linklater's film asks intelligent questions about the many ways drugs and drug policy affect society and individuals. By capturing the paranoia of that world, and presenting it in a style that creates a unique viewing experience, A Scanner Darkly stands as one of the very best Philip K. Dick adaptations.

The Fantastic Planet (1973)

   

A French/Czech co-production, the dream-like La Planete Sauvage concerns the degradation of the Oms, human-like creatures on the futuristic planet Yagam. The Oms are kept as pets and beasts of burden by the Draggs, 39-foot beings who comprise Yagam's ruling class. The status quo is upset when Terr, one of the Oms, accidentally receives an education, whereupon he organizes the other Oms to demand equality with the Draggs. Based on Stefen Wul's novel Ems En Serie, Fantastic Planet was the winner of a 1973 Cannes Film Festival grand prize.

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Review By Derek Armstrong

Rarely has a titular adjective so accurately captured the experience of watching a movie as in Fantastic Planet. The film's alternate universe is both totally an element of fantasy, and fantastic in its vernacular sense: an absolute marvel to behold. Rene Laloux's animated French-language allegory takes trippiness to new levels of pure imagination, conjuring a planet where humans are both domesticated pet and outlaw nuisance to the native rulers. These rulers, the skyscraper-sized Traags, are blue humanoids with red eyes and vaguely aquatic features -- but who otherwise are pretty genial, intellectual beings. It's no coincidence we're supposed to see ourselves in them, but Fantastic Planet is no mere plea for us to trade places with the Earth creatures we so callously enslave and kill. Masterfully, Laloux's film also invites us to identify with the humans, whose spirit of determination inspires them to an against-all-odds uprising. But however many ways Fantastic Planet invites reflection, it's at least as interested in wowing its audiences with otherworldly technology, flora and fauna. The film pauses to flesh these out through atmospheric vignettes, featuring tall plants that whip the air aimlessly, intricate groves of multi-colored trees, small bulbous-eyed creatures that make clothing by foaming bubbles from their mouths, or giant winged beasts that scream in frightening bursts. (The sound design is a discussion in and of itself, consisting of excellently 1970s computerized beeps and boops, plus a soundtrack that could accompany a porn movie from that era, without that being the least bit silly). The Traags are a fully realized entity both familiar and unsettlingly foreign -- when their meditations carry them skyward in enclose bubbles, it's breathtaking. The one complaint is that the spell is broken slightly by the dispassionate and largely unnecessary narration of the lead character, reflecting on events after the fact, which tends to distance us from the bizarre immediacy of the story. Fantastic Planet is showing us so much, it doesn't need to tell us anything.

Into the Woods (1990)

            

Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical is preserved in this made-for-television film of the stage hit. Spun around several children's fairy tales, writer and director James Lapine takes Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack (from the beanstalk), the Wicked Witch and the Childless Baker and his wife, and intertwines their stories in the forest as they try to achieve their respective goals. In the first act, the characters are looking for things that they hope will make them happy, and in the second act, they see the consequences of setting these goals. Sondheim's music and lyrics won the Tony for "Best Musical Score."

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Review By Craig Butler 

Since its Broadway debut, Into the Woods has become a staple of regional and community theatres around the country. The video translation captures much of the magic of the original production; however, because the stage show was essentially filmed as a stage show, rather than re-imagined for film, there is an inescapable static quality to the proceedings, as well as a "distancing" effect that keeps the viewer from really getting involved with the story. That said, there is still a great deal to recommend the video, especially for theatre enthusiasts. Stephen Sondheim's glorious score is presented in full, allowing one to enjoy the witty "Agony," the lovely "Children Will Listen," the amazing "Giants in the Sky," and the touching "No One Is Alone." James Lapine's witty dialogue and intricate plotting are also preserved, though they suffer significantly from the static filming. Bernadette Peters is a delicious Witch and Joanna Gleason a stand-out as the Baker's Wife. Gleason uses her wry delivery, guarded warmth, and underlying sense of restlessness to create a fairy tale character with considerable depth. Ben Wright is a lovably befuddled Jack and Danielle Ferland an amusingly tough Red Riding Hood. Into the Woods is a valuable record of an important musical, but it's a shame that such an imaginative musical did not receive a more imaginative video production.

Forbidden Zone (1982)

           

The bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another dimension through the gateway found in her family's basement.

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The Mill and the Cross (2011)

Lech Majewski directed this visually striking examination of the nexus between art and politics in the 16th century. In 1564, the Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel created one of his best-known and most controversial works, "The Procession to Calvary," in which Christ, carrying his cross, makes his way to his own crucifixion though a crowded landscape that features representations of hundreds of historic and contemporary figures. The painting was a biting commentary on political matters of the day as well as a satiric view of religion, and in The Mill & the Cross, Majewski re-creates the making of Bruegel's masterpiece, as the artist (played by Rutger Hauer) stages the images and explains their meanings while we learn more about the individuals depicted and the people who posed for the work, many of whom have their own stories to tell. Using digital imaging technology, The Mill & the Cross allows viewers to enter into Bruegel's painting as the static figures come to life. Also starring Charlotte Rampling and Michael York, The Mill & the Cross received its American premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

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Eldorado (2012)

The Stranger, a tall striking creature dressed in white sets into motions a series of events whilst reciting the Edgar Allen Poe Poem "Eldorado", which will have an effect on those heading towards the mythical city. The evening was going to be a normal Blues Brothers tribute gig for Oliver and Stanley Rosenblum, The Jews Brothers at a local Bar Mitzvah, but things were not going to go to plan for Stan and Ollie. After being wrongly sent to entertain the annual conference of Neo Nazi's instead of the stripper, which was sent to the Bar Mitzvah by their inept Manager JJ. The Jews Brothers are chased out of town by the head of the Californian Chapter of Neo Nazi's General Zwick, and after contacting their agent JJ who makes amends for the mix up by sending the boys and the stripper Lesley Dean to do a show at the Eldorado Festival. This sets in motion a series of events...

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Wisconsin Death Trip (2000)

This film adaptation of Michael Lesy's 1973 book takes a look at the sordid and disturbing underside of life in a small Wisconsin community in the 1890s. In the early 1970s, Lesy discovered a large collection of curious photographs from Black River Falls, Wisconsin, taken near the end of the 19th century, and began doing research on the town in hopes of learning the story behind them. Lesy was startled by what he learned; over the course of a decade, Black River Falls fell victim to a severe diphtheria epidemic, the local economy collapsed following the shutdown of a mining business, a serial arsonist terrorized the community, a lunatic claiming to act under God's orders held 26 people hostage at the local church, two children murdered a farmer, a number of infants were abandoned or killed, and an undercurrent of violence and madness seemed to taint all aspects of the town's history. Using both the original photographs and silent recreations staged by director James Marsh (accompanied by narration from Ian Holm), Wisonsin Death Trip attempts to recreate the disturbing qualities of the photos and news clippings that formed the basis of Lesy's book.

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