Most adaptations of novels or short stories by cult science fiction writer Philip K Dick (Paycheck, Minority Report, Total Recall) use his imaginative scenarios for action sequences but sideline his extraordinary philosophical musings. With A Scanner Darkly director Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, The School of Rock) has directly adapted Dick’s novel from page to screen.
Film review – A Scanner Darkly (2006)
5 December 2006
Comments Off on Film review – A Scanner Darkly (2006) | 
Film review | Tagged: A Scanner Darkly, Before Sunrise, Blade Runner, John Woo, Keanu Reeves, Minority Report, Paul Verhoeven, Paycheck, Philip K Dick, Richard Linklater, Robert Downey Jr., The School of Rock, Total Recall, Waking Life, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson | 
Permalink
Posted by Thomas Caldwell
The Master of Consensual Manipulation
25 July 2003Contribution to The Question Spielberg: A Symposium
The films of Steven Spielberg are often derided for their populist appeal. However this quick judgement is often made without an attempt to examine why Spielberg has maintained such a high level of box office success over the past three decades. Prominent in Spielberg’s filmic style is his mastery of techniques of cinematic manipulation, techniques that paradoxically have made his work both commercially successful and critically undervalued. Yet Spielberg’s trademark use of swelling music, emotive dialogue and intimate close-ups, and his thematic concern with family trauma, innocent children in a hostile world, and the child who never grew up, contribute to a powerfully engaging and satisfying filmic experience.
Comments Off on The Master of Consensual Manipulation | Director profile | Tagged: Artificial Intelligence: AI, Catch Me If You Can, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Minority Report, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg | Permalink
Posted by Thomas Caldwell
