Movie Notes: Waking Life

October 19th, 2007

Waking Life

= 2 stars

Starring Wiley Wiggins, Alex Jones, Adam Goldberg
Directed by Richard Linklater

Amazon link

Movies I watched A Scanner Darkly a while back and thought it would be fun to check out Waking Life which was the first use of the stylized, rotoscope animation. I found it “interesting” but in a weak way, meaning it was fairly entertaining but I wouldn’t recommend it. Maybe a “meh +”.

The basic plot concerns lucid dreaming, following a young man walking around Austin in an dream state where he meets various philosophers, thinkers, and crazies who offer up their philosophical but sometimes totally out-there thoughts on life.

Although some quite profound thoughts surface, none of them had much staying power for me, as they’re presented in a rather stream-of-consciousness manner, where every opinion is equally valid. There are billions of unique individuals that have compelling views on why the world is what it is or the meaning of life, but Waking Life doesn’t really provide a compelling organizational structure to present these thoughts or any explanation why these particular individuals were selected.

The animation style also feels a bit like a cheat - while beautiful, it’s similar to the Final Fantasy movie. I kept asking, if this weren’t animated, would this film be worth watching? My personal answer is - probably not.

My favorite Richard Linklater films are still the original Slackers and the sleepily romantic Before Sunrise and After Sunset. After watching Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, I think the trippy-dippy animations still haven’t found justification for their use.

IMDB: Waking Life
Wikipedia: Waking Life
Rotten Tomatoes: Waking Life 78%