Waking Life

Plot synopsis:
Waking Life is about an unnamed young man living an ethereal existence that lacks transitions between everyday events and eventually progresses toward an existential crisis. For most of the film, he observes quietly but later participates actively in philosophical discussions involving other characters—ranging from quirky scholars and artists to everyday restaurant-goers and friends—about such issues as metaphysics, free will, social philosophy, and the meaning of life. Other scenes do not even include the protagonist's presence, but rather, focus on a random isolated person, group of people, or couple engaging in such topics from a disembodied perspective. Along the way, the film touches also upon existentialism, situationist politics, posthumanity, the film theory of André Bazin, and lucid dreaming, and makes references to various celebrated intellectual and literary figures by name.
Gradually, the protagonist begins to realize that he is living out a perpetual dream, broken up only by occasional false awakenings. So far he is mostly a passive onlooker, though this changes during a chat with a passing woman who suddenly approaches him. After she greets him and shares her creative ideas with him, he reminds himself that she is a figment of his own dreaming imagination. Afterwards, he starts to converse more openly with other dream characters, but he begins to despair about being trapped in a dream.
The protagonist's final talk is with a character who looks somewhat similar to the protagonist himself and whom he briefly encountered previously, earlier in the film. This last conversation reveals this other character's understanding that reality may be only a single instant that the individual interprets falsely as time (and, thus, life); that living is simply the individual's constant negation of God's invitation to become one with the universe; that dreams offer a glimpse into the infinite nature of reality; and that in order to be free from the illusion called life, the individual need only to accept God's invitation.
The protagonist is last seen walking into a driveway when he suddenly begins to levitate, paralleling a scene at the start of the film of a floating child in the same driveway. The protagonist uncertainly reaches toward the car's handle, but is too swiftly lifted above the vehicle and over the trees. He rises into the endless blue expanse of the sky until he disappears from view.

Tags: boring, psychological, thought-provoking, cult, alternate reality, psychedelic, satire, philosophical, storytelling

Review:
This film is best for those who have sat around thinking about the big questions in life for long periods of time, dying for someone to talk to about them.
I saw this movie for the first time late last night and 5 minutes before it started I had fallen asleep and was hoping I'd be able to make it all the way through the film.
From the first frame I was riveted and completely awake and remained so even after it was over; contemplating all the myriad viewpoints the film had thrown at me.This movie is so exciting and bursting with ideas that I'm going to buy the DVD as soon as I possibly can and watch it over and over trying to absorb it all.See this film.
If it were simply caught on film and released in that same manor, it would not have had the monstrous effect that it had, and it would not have come across in a way that would retain the interest of this generation's ADD youth (which SHOULD be it's primary demographic...they are the ones who can still change this world, and create the paradigm shift that is necessary) This movie is the fiber of all life, it IS that collective unconscious from which we all draw our own, personal beings.
It has its flaws, but only in retrospect or through the eyes of another will they be found--and then forgiven if you have even an ounce of heart or a particle of transcendence.It gets beneath one's radar and past one's filters.For instance, it hits you perceptually with constantly varying animation styles, and after some time, you adjust to this so much that when you leave the theater, THE WORLD IS ANIMATED--a poetic way of saying that your connection to the proposition that all things are real is loosen WONDERFULLY!And then, it hits you intellectually by parading a dozen+ viewpoints of persons who would not necessarily disagree with one another, but show the vast importance to us of the personal way we manifest our philosophical axioms and how much that depends on our individual interests-not all of us are psychologically constructed to be philosophers, but all of us can be analyzed to have a philosophical set of suppositions.
Fantastic Work of Film Art. Waking Life has broken new ground surrounding the idea of animation.
But the animation makes up for that, because the film has so much visual content that one could also watch it with out the dialog, just being immersed in the art.I'm not an expert in philosophy, I've just taken one beginners class, although i am interested in the topic.
I'd say that Waking Life, rather than trying to reinvent philosophical theories, tries to present these ideas in the form of a film the same way as Jostein Gaarder's book 'Sophie's World'.
Even something very talky like "My Night at Maude's" at least tries to spend enough time to explore the philosophical question.Watching this was like being at a party where a bunch of people start talking about stuff which they know absolutely nothing about - or more accurately, just enough to get it all wrong.
To just present them without organization or taking a position just seems to translate to me as: "See how much I know??"  Like a discussion with someone after their first philosophy class, when they recite theory to you, without questioning, challenging, or even favoring any of it.I feel that the use of the plot being that the boy was dreaming (or dead) was to hide the fact that Linklater DIDN'T have any profound point to make.
Tom's theory was that you should always show your audience instead of "talking about" what you want to show them.Which brings me to "Waking Life."  I had never heard anything about this film, read anything about it, seen any previews.
The script itself is thought provoking and utterly stimulating, and gets the viewer, if he or she is a creative and imaginative individual, to immerse him/herself with the subject matter at hand and ask themselves the big questions of what life is all about, as the lead character does.Reading through some of the negative reviews on this website, I felt like flushing my head down the toilet.
Waking Life will give any forward thinking individual a fine film experience; it expertly achieves what Richard Linklater set out to do, which was to create a visually outstanding, mind expanding film which deals with social and cultural theory.Detractors of this film should drop out of that film studies class they have been attending because evidently it is turning you into a pretentious film prima donna..
Filmmaker Richard Linklater supplies some much needed thinking material for those restless nights and boring work days in Waking Life.
You keep watching to see how, if at all, Linklater will develop his ideas in purely visual terms but if this were not an animated film and had real actors instead of what are, fundamentally, their cartoon selves, you would definitely switch off long before the end..
To describe the basic plot it is enough to say that the main character spends the film in a sort of dream state in which he meets/sees all manner of people who discuss ideas, theories and philosophy of life  and that's more or less it.OK so by now you already know whether you will hate this or not, although you don't know if you will like it.
I would not want to watch a film done this way every week but again seeing it not only done but done for a reason within the material is worth the experience.Waking Life is far from a good film but it is undeniably creative and interesting.
to me, this was quite an exceptional movie and I particularly enjoyed watching it more than a couple of times, as I really felt the need to, given the fact that it had plenty of philosophical ideas in it and didn't want to miss any...
what has always stricken me as particularly odd is the fact that some dreams are so intense and vivid that they seem to come to life under my very eyelids:)I think there there are many things being said through this movie that we ought to be paying attention to...there is so little we know about ourselves and our surroundings these days that it takes a lifetime and more to get to the core of our existence.we are all inherently and fundamentally different that we should consider the fact that the only elements of binding with each other are the rules, customs and conventions inoculated and imposed by the societies or communities we belong to.think about that!who are you, apart from what the world has made of you?.
Hell, even Monty Python's The Meaning of Life will do.You want to watch a film with halfway decent animation that's just as intelligent if not more so, watch South Park (and yes I'm serious about this).If you want to watch a film with great dialogue, watch A Man for All Seasons.Basically, you'd be better off watching all of those movies than wasting your time on this piece of crap.I don't need to pay $7 to sit in a theatre or $3 to rent a movie filled with a bunch of pretentious morons sitting around in wobbly animation babbling on about life and philosophy.
If I want to explore the inner workings of the mind and the concept of dreams, I'd much rather read something by Sartre or Kierkegaard or any other psychologist or philosopher rather than watching Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy spew it back to me on screen.This movie spoon feeds philosophy to those who are too lazy to read the actual works of the authors cited.
Although an ambitious idea (and I do find the technique of animation over live film intriguing, even if it doesn't work), it fails miserably because it does indeed come off as pseudo-intellectual, pretentious garbage, and that's exactly what it is.
The movies' look isn't a case of style over matter at all, it's what gives "Waking Life" it's dream-like quality.
This look is what really sucks you into this completely different world, this dream world.Although I've loved some of Linklater's movies dearly ("Before Sunrise/Sunset", "Dazed & Confused", "School Of Rock") and I have appreciated him as a rather versatile director before, it's "Waking Life" that convinced me that he's a real master, as artistically skilled as Michel Gondry or Darren Daronofsky.
Though slight and strong fluctuations surface as obvious additions to the original film, for the most part the animation adheres to the actors and their brilliant portrayals as 'characters' in a dream or even dreamers themselves.Second, the rich, rapidly paced dialogue covering grounds from Socrates to Nietzche keeps the mind and senses at bay throughout leaving the audience second guessing foreknown conclusions.
I was very curious to watch "Waking Life" and I expected a great movie.
This is like listening to a student read out his latest philosophy essay.The thoughts of the people the main character meets in the dream world are not really original, just more of the same old reprinted crap that has been going around in the literary world for decades.
Rightfully so, a nice movie worth watching in the background and jut about people living their life, and being as casual as it may be it manages to be original as well.While Waking Life may be comparable to Dazed & Confused in which there are many characters, all which seem to be laid back, and there's really no actual plot.
Liberties are taken with the animation, but to an absurd extent and it feels like it's trying too hard to be artistic (which it of course ends up failing at).The story of Waking Life...
A guy wandered around and lots of people talked to him about their personal (even though I know it was YOUR) philosophies, and he couldn't wake up from the dream.
The animation style gets VERY old VERY quickly.As for plot...Well, what can i say...perhaps as a 20 minute short, this film might have been quite watchable, but as it stretches itself out to an excruciating 1 hour 38 minutes, its enough to make anyone want to hurt themselves.The film consists of a series of monologues with brief dashes of (very thin, callista flockhart style thin) plot between nutcases ranting about various different philosophies and their individual take on life.Now, don't get me wrong, i enjoy arty movies which inspire deep thought and conversation amongst friends afterwards, but what we have here is a film that starts off dull, hurts your eyes with flangey and unnecessary animation, fires intense drawn out and unnecessary exposition, steers away from what little plot or purpose it is supposed to contain for long periods of time, and at the end of it, leaves the viewer not enlightened or inquisitive about the themes involved, but bored and frustrated that they had wasted over an hour and a half of their life sitting down and watching this piece of trash.Until i saw this movie, i thought i had seen bad films but at least i was able to sit through them without falling asleep.
I was quite disturbed by some of the comments of your contributors getting such a negative perception of this movie.Certainly it is not something for easy movie watchers,who prefer soaps or comedies with a predictable plot.This is a movie with no plot,an animation which sometimes might be exhausting for your eyes,but filled with so much thoughts,that one single philosophy book might be unable to contain.And if you watch more carefully the dream like animation,you'll see that animation is well expressing the thoughts and moods of the numerous characters,contribu- ting to the unique message ,interactivity between dream and reality.You should better watch this movie with the pencil in your hand,noting so many memorable quotes,which your quotes column only scarcely represent.But you can find on the internet pages giving many commented quotes from this unique movie.I highly recommend to take your time to interpret from your point of view the valuable thoughts expressed by the characters and this will help to better understanding of the message.I refer just to opinions expressed by the professor on existentialism:It stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's actions.We are all made up of individual choices and decisions that we make throughout our lives.If we wisely choose the right decisions,then we can have almost total control of where our life will take us.Going concrete on above thoughts I pondered about the attitude of many people both in my country as well as in other democracies not to go voting when elections are held,this as they say,in the name of freedom of choice and of breaking social slavery.Certainly we may respect their choice.But strangely the same mass protesting by their absence at elections,always are the most fierce critics of the election results and of the further developments in their society.A minority votes,perhaps it is misinformed or uninformed,at the end the results reflect only their attitudes,So many more social problems are created.If you can put the blame on someone else for the consequences of your non-acting,you will face the consequences and have no possibility of correcting by your vote even the most irresponsible political behaviour embraced by a minority.I just tried to show by the above,how some phrases from this astonishing movie can lead those willing to ponder about,to interpreting various important issues of our post - modernist democracies.If you are willing to make this effort,the movie will offer you a wide variety of valuable thoughts to be interpreted,what no single philosopy-or sociology book can give you.Highly recommend Linklater's unusual animation,which I consider a great movie to watch again and again..
'Waking Life' is much more than just an animated version of Linklater's first film 'Slacker.' Yes, it follows the same routine, as young vagabonds traverse the streets of Austin, TX waxing philosophically about their disconnectedness.
Waking Life is pure art and philosphy.It is a product made for reflexions and to make you analyze everything you see in the world.Why the human been doesn't ask questions anymore?Did he got used to the reality which you just have to live your life without questioning the importance of it and why he are alive.The movie is constructed by dialogues with the main character who just listen tho opinion of the others.Those dialogues are about existenciliasm,violence,language,death,dreams and relashionship.It is a travel to the philosophy.It is exposed the thoughts of great man life Sartre,Tomas de Aquino,Aristoteles and the still search of man trying to explain the reality,what we live!It's just a big trip!The art is incredible,the actors were filmed by a small camera and after this process artists painted them with colors,life a cartoon within the reality.The work gets surreal as the movie roles.It was a wonderful idea and a new concept of doing movies(which shows that cinema isn't dead).It is a shame that the academy didn't considered Waking Life in the new category of the Oscar.Waking Life is only for fews who want to do reflexions on your life.Most of the people won't like because is an unconventional movie.But those who wants to start thinking about the world ,the existence and the meaning of many things we deal on life it is a great experience.Rent,watch and think!.
As a live action movie this would be unwatchable.The main point of this film seems to be to show the audience these amazing philosophical theories that will blow their minds and change their life.
If you question the mysteries of life and are open to different philosophical theories, ideas, or just random thoughts, you will most likely like this movie.
Anyway, that's what "Waking Life" looks like, only in this hip new movie by Richard Linklater, the chicks, dudes, and old geezers stand around talking about not being able to distinguish dreams and reality, and all that other kind of existential stuff.
And it's great that there's a hot new filmmaker who's interested in making movies about people who speak to each other and actually talk about ideas.
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.
The movie is a bombardment of ideas about our modern lives, that's why it makes people say "I've thought about this!" even though they haven't read anything about philosophy before.The use of sounds, animations and colors are very effective.
I saw this movie for the first time in 2006, I recently watched it again in 2014 and still think I have many more viewings to go.Its just a beautiful story held together with the most amazing interactions and dialogue.
"Waking Life" is like an animated "My Dinner with Andre" so that the talking heads are certainly more interesting to look at.
The mostly rotoscope-like technique makes for more intriguing characterizations than most animation, with interesting use of character actors and intellectuals with quirky faces and attention-commanding voices, no matter what sense/nonsense they're talking about dreaming/waking/consciousness/life/death.The cameos of such as Ethan Hawke (who is just as sexy animated as filmed) and Stephen Soderbergh and Adam Goldberg are fun to pick out.
Waking Life is one of the movies that make people think.
In short, not films like Waking Life..
Waking Life is an animated film like no other.
Yes, people don't "talk like that in real life", yes, some of the scenes are jarring and seem out of sync with the rest of the film.
I know of no film that resembles Waking Life in terms of animation techniques, story line and dialogue.