Customer Reviews

Waking Life (Widescreen)

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

"Waking Life" is an experimental film, it combines dreamy, atmospheric animation with philosophy and animated cameos. The film doesn't have a linear plot, as a matter of fact it doesn't have a plot at all, because "Waking Life" it's a collection of individual segments, each one of them contains a monologue, or sometimes a collective speech about existential topics.

By the way, since "Waking Life" offers many points of view about a lot of existential topics, there will be some opinions that you will agree with, and other opinions that you won't agree, and that's part of the charm of the movie. "Waking Life" doesn't want to tell you the truth about the human being, "Waking Life" invites the audience to think, to form an individual opinion about the different elements of our existences. So yes, "Waking Life" requires an active audience.

The movie discusses a lot of elements: God, the dreams, the individuality of each person, the existence of the human being, among many others. "Waking Life" offers a lot to talk or think about, so this is a fascinating film, because sometimes the speeches get so complicated or complex that you constantly are trying to solve the puzzle in your mind.

Visually "Waking Life" is one of the most daring animated films that I have ever seen, you think that Disney will ever make a movie like this one? Obviously not. This is independent cinema at its best. Once in a while it's refreshing to see unique movies like this one, the director and writer Richard Linklater did a great job with "Waking Life".

This project is an exhilarating meditation on the nature of reality. Linklater, in my opinion, succeeds remarkably well in mimicking the experience of lucid dreaming with his use of photomontage, cartoon overlays and jerky camera movements. The dialogues and characters in the movie possess a ghost-like quality that lured my unsuspecting mind into the murmurs of incandescent unpredictability, so typical of dreaming....and the creative process.

What underlies all the philosophising, the analysing and reviewing in Waking Life is passion for experience of life mixed with unease and wonder that one has in the face of the unknown. There are no subterfuges, no tricks, no gimmics, no questions even - only the wide open eyes of a young man watching, observing and experiencing. This is an awesome movie and I intend to watch it many more times.

"Waking Life" is so full of ideas, one flowing to the next, it really does feel like some sort of lucid dream. The animation adds to the overall vitality of the film. It jumps off the screen, challenging the viewer to wrestle with these questions, to take responsibility for his/her existence for at least a couple of hours. There is a sense of urgency bordering on desperation as the dream continues and the search for a center, for some kind of clear understanding begins to seem endless.

There is so much here to absorb, you can really loose yourself completely in the film. At one point, we watch two men discussing the nature of film as an art form (I can't remember who they were) and then the perspective widens and we see that they are, themselves, on a movie screen in a theater with our main character as its sole occupant, which makes sense since it only exists in his mind - in his dream. Of course, we are also in a theater watching the film, adding another level to this already multi-layered context.

After seeing this movie, I felt thoroughly invigorated. I wish there were more films like this.

Waking Life_ is certainly an intense film, quite unlike anything that is currently out there. Overall, I enjoyed the film, but it took a couple of viewings to fully absorb everything. Throughout the film, our protagonist wanders around trying to navigate the gap between dreaming and reality, listening to everyone who has a mind to talk to him. Naturally, some of the monologues are interesting and stimulating, while some of them are pure rants. Even the more philosophical talks are delivered with an ordinary language that renders them a bit childish: "It's like, quantum physics, man. You know, like, the real stuff that's out there, man." This is not an actual quote, but rather a demonstration of the kind of speech to which I am referring. I get tired of the surfer speech and agree with other reviewers who have called the philosophies "juvenile" at times. There are many points in the film where we get to listen to your average Joe spout off about "the truth" when it is obvious that he probably couldn't even pass his driver's exam.

Still, the animation in this film is truly unique and interesting to watch. Despite the film's rambling nature and absence of plot, the spliced sequences make for an interesting ride that definitely breaks the norm. If you enjoy animated films that are a bit "out there," you should see _Waking Life_.

I really liked this movie although it is a bit too much. It was a very ambitious undertaking and was done well but the graphics give you a serious headache after awhile. Not too many full length films have been made in this style and I can see why. the interviews were interesting as long as you don't watch them all in one go.

Wow, this was the impression i was left with after watching this movie. "Waking Life" is intensly philosophical, it challenges your perception on life, death, religion, society and reality itself. How much of a role do your dreams play in your waking life? Can you control your dreams or are you controlled? These ideas are a medium for the more philosophical disscusions the lead has with the countless people he talks do while wondering around doing absolutley nothing.

The amount of talking in the film could be intimidating but only because it forces you to think about what is being said because it is all very deep stuff. At one stage a woman talks of death as being an extended dream that you can't wake from. The anonimity of the majority of characters lets the ideas take form free of any pre-concieved notions you might have if say the ideas were coming from someone well known.

The mass of talking is balanced well with the very innovative animation. The film becomes a living breathing work of art with the characters being represented in watercolour, charcoals, line drawings and in styles reminiscent of surrealists such as magrite or dali and some scenes looking familar to a picasso painting. The animation is used to great effect to emphasize some of the characters points.

In short if you want to be challenged, if you want to view life from a new perspective, watch this movie.

okay, i truly love this movie, every aspect of it! notwithstanding the great animation (each segment of the film being animated from real-life footage by dozens of separate artists), the premise of the film as a lucid dream is simply awsome. i myself have only had a handful of lucid dreams so far though the movie did indeed inspire my latest one! and it's encouraged me to start 'dreaming' more seriously nowadays.

anyways back to the dvd. it's chock-full of nifty extras. first off there are 3 commentary tracks, each for a separate aspect of the film. the first one if regarding the animation process and is basically all of the animators (20+) talking about their segments, why they chose them and how they chose to animate them. very interesting but mainly technical stuff so not for the faint-hearted. next is the great commentary track with director richard linklater and cast members. this is my favorite one because hearing hero wiley wiggins on the track just makes you fall in love with him, he's so sweet! third up is a text commentary (i.e. subtitles over the film) which is incredibly fascinating and regards the ideas and philosophies the people wiley's character encounters throughout the film are speaking of. take note though that the subtitles are incredibly long and run by really fast so if you want to indulge in the explanations you'll have to have your finger on the pause button throghout the film to be able to catch everything.

the deleted animated scenes are nice as are the other animated shorts bob sabiston and linklater had made that are included in the dvd (it is a great dvd after all!), and you can catch a glimpse of the real-live action by looking at selected live action takes as well. the featurette is nice and the animation tutorial is incredibly technical and therefore not really engrossing, and finally the trailers are a nice way of seeing how the plot of a movie can be warped entirely by (most probably) hollywood suits to fool people into going to see a movie which is totally different.

this is one movie you'll be watching again and again throughout your life!

First of all, the philosophy of this film is juvenile. (...) You know, it is possible to "get" something and still not like it.
On a serious note; do not watch this if you are epileptic. Since the frames are rotoscoped entirely by hand, they do not line up precisely from one frame to the next. This results in a strobing effect that left me with a splitting headache within 2 minutes, and left me nauseous within 5.

"Waking Life" is fantastic. The animation alone pulls you in, but it's the philosophies that keep you in. This is the kind of movie that makes more sense each time you watch it. "Waking Life" will not only inspire you to think, but also to dream.

Waking Life is a true achievement in our contemporary films filled with tasteless and insipid stories. Waking Life isn't a story, it's a dream, another parallel universe where the protaganist Wiley Wiggins weaves in and out of others conversations and intelligence poiting towards his own understanding of the difference between dreams and reality. What is so facsinating about this movie is the way that Richard Linklater decides to present this information in a sort of suttle dialect made by real life actors and then painted over to resemble animation. I completely was taking in awe by this film and what it had to say about the normality of what we know is real and what we choose to think is real thus creating our own universe where we can listen to others and not have any control, just floating away or levitating (which Wiley did alot in his dreams) into more mind numbing thoughts. Wiley finds that characteristics of being asleep are not being able to tell light differences and not being able to read his clock which seem to distort if he looks at it so every time he looks at the clock he is unable to tell what time it is because in your sleep, there is no time.
There definetly are some mind numbing lines in this movie such as short phrases said by strangers passing by Wiley which seem to just flutter before you and make no sense at all. If you are interested in intelligent, suttle, and imaginary movies breaking all possibility of remaining in the real world, this movie is definetly for you. It is a true marvel and work of art.