Filmspotting #114: A Scanner Darkly / The Thin Man / Top 5 Mindbenders

The works of novelist Philip K. Dick have been turned into big budget action spectacles like "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," and "Minority Report." So it is perhaps a little surprising that Richard Linklater's adaptation of Dick's 1977 "A Scanner Darkly" is very much what you'd expect from a Linklater film: characters... talking... a lot. Except in "Scanner," the conversation isn't idle, philosophical musings about relationships or how to spend the summer before your senior year of high school; instead it's a conversation fueled by drug-induced paranoia and the not unfounded fear that the drug the characters are taking is slowly killing them. One of your hosts enjoyed spending time with Linklater's wacked-out characters and didn't mind the movie's meandering pace; the other was less patient with the film's frequent digressions and was left wondering what it all added up to.

Plus: Listener Feedback, Massacre Theatre, a review of 1934's "The Thin Man" -- the first film in our six-week Screwball Comedies Marathon -- and our Top 5 Mindbenders.

Music by Calexico courtesy of Touch & Go Records.

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Filmspotting #114
:37-16:36 - Review: "A Scanner Darkly"
16:37-17:13 - Audio Feedback
Music: Calexico, "Cruel"
18:17-22:14 - New DVDs, Peerflix Winner/Notes
22:15-27:19 - Donations, Poll Questions, Dope Sheet Winner
27:20-33:39 - Listener Feedback (Movies You Should've Hated)
Music: Calexico, "Ballad of Cable Hogue"
34:49-37:47 - Massacre Theatre (Winner: Dan Heaton)
37:48-48:48 - Screwball Comedies #1: "The Thin Man"
Music: Calexico, "Spokes"
49:52-52:19 - San Fran Recap
52:20-1:10:06 - Top 5 Mindbenders
1:10:07-1:12:11 - Next Week/Close/Outtake

Have a comment or Top 5 list you'd like to share? Send an e-mail or short mp3 clip to feedback@filmspotting.net. Or give us a call at 206-203-CINE and leave a voice message.