Waking Life

A delightfully weird film depicting one boy's death or dream or something. You see the boy passively interacting with the people he meets and having conversations with them. Billions of contradictory ideas are expressed. Everything shifts and wobbles. The director has captured what a real dream feels like. Pointless, confusing and weird. The animation is fluid and the art style works well. Later in the film, the boy is less passive and at one point has a full-blown conversation with a figure in the dream. Overall, an interesting, thought-provoking and entertaining experiment.

This is pretty much like what other people say. There's not much of a plot it's pretty much a philosophy session and there are so many things they say for you to ponder upon. The animation is some of the most interesting visuals I've seen in any film. You'll walk out of it thinking differently.

Masterful and mind-blowingly brilliant, Waking Life is basically a documentary for the mind and how different reactions are dealt with with the events and scenarios that take place around us. This film documents a series of life views in regards to the simple occurrences in our life, politics, post-moderism, the human mind and even reactions to other people around us. Not only is the film a series of interviews, but it is an entirely animated affair, using similar techniques to rotoscope that are beneficial to the dream state to which the film is told in, seemingly inside of the head of the dreamer (Wiley Wiggins) The film contains some of the most inspiring and 'wake-up' moments of your life, whether its from a middle-aged sitting in leathers and drinking beer or from a wise old man, the thought-provoking dialogue and fast paced animation is enough to make you ponder your life choices. The animation seems purposely low-budget, combining shifting colours with random screen situations, flying, clouds etc. It is truly unique and beautiful to watch. Probably the most wonderful part of the film is the dialogue itself, one of the most quotable films in recent memories, it provides humour with realistic expectations, and one stand out is four men walking along a footpath, and one says "On the way to discovering what we love, we will find everything we hate, everything that blocks our path to what we desire". This is just one of the many experiences at play here, and hating this film is perhaps a choice of film preference, but shouldn't be one that goes amiss. The protagonist is taken on a wild ride of his imagination, with all these insightful people invading his mind, and the message of the title becomes clear, wake up your life and think, listen to the things going on around you, listen to peoples emotions and understand their choices. A truly magical film that is simply flawless in its delivery of the state of dreaming but more importantly, the state of approaching your life with a confrontational and emotional stance, whether its basic human interaction or your decisions. Beautiful and insightful.

Absolutely astonishing movie. Definitely in my top 3 favorite movies of all time. I recommend this film to everyone, especially if you have an interest in lucid dreaming.

This might be an incredible, mindbending experience for someone with no knowledge of philosophy or someone who's more interested in the visuals than the content. But for me, someone with a major interest in philosophy who's really familiar with a lot of these topics, this film really hits you over the head in an uncomfortable way. It's just the character walking from one giant mouth of a character to another, listening to their didactic rambling about introductory philosophical debates that really fall flat if you know the background to each of the fragments. Linklater might as well have written a series of short essays on philosophy, because that's really all he does here. No true message, no philosophical thought left to the viewer, just a series of disconnected moments that don't really offer any sort of deeper meaning. I enjoy the visuals of the film, but everything about the writing comes off as sloppy, preachy, and far too heavy-handed for my taste. Maybe my opinion will change with further viewings, but after my first viewing, I'd much rather watch a truly cerebral film that doesn't spoonfeed you ideas, and then later read a philosophy article, than be bombarded with this silly sort of "philosophical" movie.