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There is probably no single element of Richard Linklater's extraordinary new film that has not been seen or read or explored by other artists before. 'Animated real' film was tried two decades ago in the first movie version of The Lord Of The Rings (1978) and comparative philosophies examined fictionally in the novel Sophie's World yet this is still the most original movie of the decade so far. Rarely have the myriad rules and structures of dramatic form been cast so casually and calmly aside to produce such thought provoking and mesmerising effect. I have a feeling that cinefiles in the future will be divided into those who have seen it and who nod and smile wistfully at the mention of Waking Life and those who have not and who wonder what all the fuss is about.
The central unnamed character, a recent West Coast graduate, wakes and begins a journey that takes him to many real and fictional philosophers and thinkers. Some are eminent academics and some merely their bar room counterparts. Each has a unique take on life, dreams and the universe. Our hero is momentarily confused by episodes such as floating into the air, being unable to physically grip objects and catching a lift in a car that is also a boat; but just like someone in a dream he accepts them and moves on. He even encounters Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprising their roles from Linklater's Before Sunrise (1995). In time he realises that he is in a dream and wants to get out. Hope arrives in the form of a man who explains that 'Lucid Dreaming' can consciously control dreams. To have got this information he must, both the hero and we assume, be awake. 'Try switching a light on and off when you are awake and try the same in a dream', the man advises. 'If the lights won't change then you know you are dreaming and will be on the road to controlling it.' As he leaves the hero flicks the light switch for a joke and ... you guessed it, the lights don't change. A kind of Groundhog Day (1993) results and for a time the dream becomes a nightmare. (I defy anyone not to try the 'Light Switch' test.)
The whole film was shot on DV and a selection of animators given sections to animate over using different software. To say the effect is wacky would be to betray its mesmerising beauty. An early section is best described as steady cam animation and is truly disorientating. Imagine Czech animation with vivid colours. A scene in which a man burns himself with petrol would be shocking on film but appears matter of fact in animated form. Waking Life reminds us that we are all thinkers and philosophers who merely require professionals to order those thoughts. It won't change your life but it will make you look at it differently for a time.
Reviewed by Sean Patterson
Reader comments about Waking Life
Andy Murray (Email address withheld) writes:
I’d agree that Waking Life is a love-it-or-hate-it experience: personally I couldn’t stand it and found many other people described it as the worst film they’ve seen in a while… The innovative animation technique seems so full of potential and Linklater singularly fails to exploit it. The whole piece seems to have just the one point to make – ‘Man, dreams are almost kind of like real life, aren’t they?’ – a point which can be made it four seconds flat but which Linklater spins out over feature-length. He strikes me as a very patchy director: I can’t find much to love about Before Sunrise or Suburbia, both of which seem over-chatty to me, much like Kevin Smith but without the redeeming knob gags.
Watching Waking Life felt unpleasantly like being trapped at a crap party with a pack of over-earnest undergraduates banging on about the very meaning of existence and 'having a smoke'. (Admittedly, I dropped off watching it – but the irony of this was not lost on me).
Teri Hitt (seventhworld@excite.com) writes:
I loved waking life and think it is truly innovative. Not only pushing the boundries of film making and animation, but also the boundries of what is deemed reality. Addressing the forever question Whats more real -- dreams or waking life? and exploring how these two seeming seperate aspects of life connect into a whole reality bigger than we might have originally suspected.
someone (dcyspm@yahoo.com) writes:
The animation was impressive. Some of the scenes were good. The beginner philosophy was tedious and old.
katy (GlassSpider486@aol.com) writes:
I thought waking life was brilliant. I myself am fascinated by dreams. I guess you could say I'm a dreamer too. waking life was so interesting in that it explores the outer boundaries of analyzing dreams though film and animation. Dreams have such an important role in our lives ... so little people have come to realize that.
Kate (Email address withheld) writes:
I found Waking Life to be playful and articulate. While almost everyone is likely to have come across discussion such as this before, I couldn't help but admire the way it was put across in such a, well, dream-like way. I thought the use of non-linear narrative was wonderfully effective.
Matt (Email address withheld) writes:
I found it truly refreshing that the writers discuss and talk about the same type of philososphy that used to intrigue myself as a tenneager, it shows that the American film market can produce articulate writing which is so left out nowadays, overshadowed by effects and advertisements, welcome to world cinema
Matthew Jankowskyj (sylos_siona@hotmail.com) writes:
Waking Life isn't a film you'd rent from blockbuster, or a film you'd seek action and visual effects. It's more of a book displayed on the television. When i first watched it, i was amazed at the plot and the animation. But after lending it to a few of my friends, they didn't seem to have the same admiral thoughts. i'm a speculator myself, and one of the things i have never witnessed is a film containing the very 'uniqueness' if you will, of the sub-realistic mind analysing everything it percieves.
MOHAMMED ALI (heart_throber01@hotmail.com) writes:
"PEOPLE SLEEPWALK THRU THEIR WAKING STATE OR WAKEWALK THRU THEIR DREAMS." o'boy dis statement has jus changed ma way of thinking of wat dream,reality and the waking life means.WAKING LIFE stands inda middle of dream and reality and this wil only strike those who have a gifted knowledge of life.DIS film iz NNOT for evey1.
jordan brown (Email address withheld) writes:
Movie was pretty rad. the animation was pretty killer. Id have to say i like the first half of the film better. The second half gets more of a story line and i kinda liked the random conversations about philosophical stuff. Hey, and who cares if people have already talked about those issues, there arent alot of topics that are new.id watch it with an open mind and "have a smoke"
Horse plastic (gkoppan1@ucc.ac.uk) writes:
Become enlightened. What would you rather do. Watch TV, go to the pub. You can still do that but become enlightened. Find a teacher, ask the universe, talk about it, think about it, find the answers, look, the answers are there.
Pavel (slidersv@yahoo.com) writes:
I am not really following the comments written by people here. Were we watching really the same movie? The movie tries to raise viewer awareness of the reality, and introduce curiosity (Ask around, people around you don't even know why green light is green and why red light is red). But instead you are talking about some dreams and how movie's animation was interesting?? That's like Watching an alien spaceship fly by, but instead of it's perfection you would notice that the ship name tag is misspelled... Atrocious...
WILL (bassotron@comcast.net) writes:
I found Waking Life to be provocative and very "trippy" . The animation reminded me of a magic mushroom trip and the thoughts in the film are very open minded and intellectual. Trying to find the answer to life is impossible we are not meant to know it but our dreams are a path to our sub-concious minds and beyond. The movie at first had me a little confused as I thought he was dead after being hit by the car. I am still actaully a little confused even after watching it a second time. Nonetheless a very cool movie.
Paul (Email address withheld) writes:
Uhh, man... I'd hate to break it to you, but he IS dead. I figured that out by the end of the movie when he floats up into the air and the movie ends. Dude's dead. Its like a new take on the 6th sense, except instead of being able to see dead people, he saw people of thought, who gave him that last insight before he left to the next world he was destined to visit. Absolutely great movie. If you don't like it, you have no depth as far as art and the mind goes. Oh yeah, and it definitely does remind me of a mushroom trip, like the above poster said.
-Paul.
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