Waking Life (2001)
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
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recommended
Excellent, a Must See
Disturbing yet enthralling
Absolutely the worst movie.
Brilliant film. I do feel like only certain people will enjoy it though. If you are a lucid dreamer or if you have contemplated the meaning of existence for some time, this may be for you.In my opinion the entire film is quoteworthy and also it is one of the few films that I'd easily watch directly again after just having watched it. Technique, music, idea, narrators, filmography, all simply fits. This film is a masterpiece!
I always hoped to see a weaving, quasi-psychedelic, meta-real, surreal animated film that pondered the big existential questions, and this film nails it ... or, maybe the better word would be - envelop. This was one thoroughly satisfying 99 minutes of screen watching. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but if you like your brew extra-spatial, this is for you. Enjoy.
This film suffers the same problem as Crash (the 2004 film not the Cronenberg film, I haven't seen that yet), every single scene is about the exact the same thing. In this film's case it is philosophy. The concept was interesting but it would have been much better if the filmmakers had just filmed philosophy professors and rotoscoped it in a way to make the footage visually interesting. A massive problem with the film is that characters discuss philosophy and are never heard of again. If you are going to make a film about a single subject and not offer anything else at least make it a short film. Although in Before Sunrise the characters did chat about philosophy, they also talked about love and themselves allowing us to get to know them as people. At least Before Sunrise had a love story (offering more than Waking Life) and was visually interesting because of the location (the rotoscoping in this film looks ugly, the rotoscoping in A Scanner Darkly is much better but still a little off-putting, luckily that film actually has a plot so I can forgive it).I give the film 5/10 because the concept is good and did introduce me to some interesting ideas but sadly the film offered very little else and I don't think I'll ever watch it again. A pity, I wanted to enjoy this film because of Linklater but I couldn't.Edit: I have decided to rate this movie a 3/10. This is because it doesn't feel like a movie, it's just scenes tacked onto one another without much connecting them (if anything). (04/09/2016)
I always go down with the quote of Toni Morrison: "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." It perfectly fits with "Waking Life". Richard Linklater did an amazing job by putting all the pieces of this giant philosophical puzzle, in the correct order, and gave birth to a masterpiece. I totally enjoyed it! I'd like to watch another movie(this time not as an animation),with philosophical scripts and daring ideas, of many other philosophers who were not mentioned in this work of art, to explore even more the brilliant question that has many answers but non of them true(because there is not one): "What is the meaning of life?" If I were a director, it would be one of my goals. 10/10