Philip K Dick: A Day in the Afterlife (1994)

Expected more

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Dear Nicola Butler, your documentary on PKD was informative and innovative. I liked the visuals from different places in LA which were a part of the documentary. It was a nice idea to read out passages from PKD's novels while you showed us parts of LA. The guy who read out passages or dialogs from the novels sounded a bit like Sean Penn. There was a great editing/directorial flourish when a discussion on Dick's mother cuts immediately to a scene from Bladerunner when one of the androids is questioned about his mother. Your documentary also borrows ideas from Dick's novels when Gilliam turns up with a spray can named PKD and Elvis Costello who reads names of PKD's novels from off the back of a record. Most of the interviewees narrated their personal experiences with Dick and their perspective on his novels. Terry Gilliam was very good, he seemed to be very excited while discussing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I also liked one of his wives who was very candid and admitted that she was middle class and bourgeois. It was interesting to not that a broke PKD used to eat horse food bought from a pet food shop. The shopkeeper says this is why the main character in Valis was named Horselover Fats. Some conspiracy theories about who destroyed PKD's house and his eventual breakdown were also interesting. Best Regards, Pimpin. (8/10)

A great documentary- I really felt 90% of the people interviewed gave a great insight into PKD. The mind of a truly great visionary explored as his life is detailed by many of the people that were closest to him. Dick didn't just get close to edge...he leapt off it & returned with the prose to prove it! The greatest Sci-Fi writer that ever lived. Recommended Films; Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?), A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Total Recall (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale). Recommended Books; THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE, THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH, DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? UBIK, MARTIAN TIME-SLIP, DR. BLOODMONEY (OR HOW WE GOT ALONG AFTER THE BOMB), NOW WAIT FOR LAST YEAR, FLOW MY TEARS THE POLICEMAN SAID, A SCANNER DARKLY, A MAZE OF DEATH, VALIS, THE DIVINE INVASION, THE TRANSMIGRATION OF TIMOTHY ARCHER. Anyone know why Pavarotti's pictured on the review page? Ha.