| WAKING LIFE |
 2001 – USA
Director: Richard Linklater - Reviewed by Dan
I found Waking Life to be compelling for the duration, but I should tell you than when I was sixteen and my parents went out of town, I invited all of my hipster friends over and proceeded ask them the 100 questions that make up the Myers-Briggs personality test. Waking Life is like that "party." Cool if you're into it, but as far away from Animal House as you could possibly get. In other words, my friend leaned over to me about a quarter of the way through the film and asked if I thought we might be closing in on a good part soon… as far as he's concerned we never did. As far as I'm concerned the whole thing was a "good part." Waking Life was originally filmed in digital video and then later animated [read more about the animation technique here]. If you saw those orange Earthlink commercials (where for instance, if someone was talking about cheese, their entire head would morph into a block of cheddar) you've got an idea of how a lot of this film plays out. The art is at its best when it's less literal, but it further enhances the real expression on the actors faces because the really trippy stuff in this movie isn't what's on the screen but the concepts that are discussed. The animation is important in this film in that seventy percent of the population would probably walk out if it weren't for the surreal distraction it provides. Although at times Waking Life feels like it was directed by a Photoshop filter junkie in dire need of an intervention, at other times it's enlightening and transcendent. There is no linear plot to Waking Life, although the conversations do build on each other. There's an obvious bent to the philosophies being presented (which might rub some people the wrong way, but for me it was nice to be challenged by something intelligent regardless of the conclusions reached. There are no explosions, no nudity, and very little violence, but I felt I was on a journey through my own mind more grand than any I've been taken on by a movie in a long, long time. So be forewarned: Waking Life is compelling and thoughtful, but by no means typical Hollywood fare. * Bonus for Björk fans in the Seattle area—at the Egyptian theater, the film is preceded by the "Pagan Poetry" video from her Vespertine release. This is Björk like you've never seen her before, turning in yet another of the most amazing videos ever made. Not for kids, but neither is Waking Life. |
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Waking Life is like dropping really good acid and having it kick in during a college philosophy class. It just so happens that today your philosophy teacher is simultaneously trans-channeling your ex-hippie sociology prof and the reincarnation of
Buddha.
