Annie Hall
Never seen it before somehow. Woody Allen at his finest. I identified so much with so many scenes and situations he presented to the viewer. Easily my favorite film of his now. If you've never seen a Woody Allen film, this is the one to see. He offers true insight into the human experience, and some cameos from people who would become significantly more famous years later had me loling hard (Christopher Walken and Jeff Goldblum come to mind).
9/10
A Scanner Darkly
I've never read any P.K. Dick novels, but I sure do love adaptations of his work for the screen. Total Recall was sensational and entertaining, Blade Runner was the ultimate existential crisis film and sci-fi/noir. And then there's A Scanner Darkly.
If you've never seen this film, it's... unsettling. Keanu Reeves plays a narc who gets in a little too deep when the country is being destroyed by a new drug called Substance D. Without revealing too much, I'd say the animation style is what really does it on the disturbing nature of the film, coupled with Robert Downey Jr.'s performance. The film does an amazing job of expressing the effects of true substance abuse. The animation is like R. Linklatter's other work, Waking Life, where there's live acting with animation superimposed over it. The shifting nature of everything helps to draw you into this drug addicted world.
A special cameo of Alex Jones playing... well, really, himself heh, made me chuckle very hard.
While this is my least favorite of those three P.K. Dick adaptations mentioned, it's not for lack of quality or trying. It's simply because this film leaves you feeling melancholic at the end, and makes you question some of the decisions in your life, and the nature of hedonistic pursuits. I suppose it's very much akin to the other two films in that way. P.K. Dick stuff is always making you think twice about what goes on in the human mind.
8/10
The Nice Guys is hilarious.
I agree, Gosling performed amazingly amusingly in that one.