It's difficult to sort out everything in A Scanner Darkly. It's not a complicated film, but a complex one. Start with the process for creating each frame. A camera digitally records the actors as they perform in a real physical space. Effects are added frame by frame to the digital video. The technique used is called Rotoshop, a mix of rotoscope and Photoshop. With Rotoshop, it's not necessary to animate each frame, since it can do some of the work for you. Instead of the actors on screen you get to view a digital representation of them and their surroundings. Quite fitting for a movie that deals with the issue of identity.
I think the most surprising thing about this film is that Keanu Reeves was really good in it. He can actually act. It's so hard to really know this, since I don't think he has a chance to do it very often. As a matter of fact, everyone was really good in it. In a way, I think that there performances were better because of the animation technique.
Who knew Queen Elizabeth drove herself, or took the dogs out for walkies? I don't think I ever imagined that she did those things. Especially not when I was standing outside Buckingham Palace watching her royal standard wave in the breeze. The mundane is what makes The Queen a fantastic movie. How many movies about royalty show all the pom and circumstance? Almost all of them. This one though takes moments of the Queen's private life to paint a picture of the person that is the Queen. Pretty interesting that the movie starts with the Queen getting her portrait painted.
BTW, Helen Mirren is the cat's pajamas...or would it be the Queen's pajamas?