Waking Life
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Movie Reviews of Waking Life
Movie Review: Cerebral Cinema
Summary: 5 Stars
Waking Life is a problematic and beautiful movie but not for the reasons that most people have with this film. I am relieved whenever I come across a movie that takes an interesting idea and allows itself as a film to become wrapped around its content. The challenging aspect of Waking Life though is that the content varies from the completely cerebral to the sophmoric. Which I suppose is the challenge of making a stream-of-conciousness take on the dreamstates of life, cinema, and art. The use of rotoscope throughout the film makes it seem like a dream-state of the movie 'Slacker'. For those who dismiss it simply as a hashing of 'Philosophy 101' concepts or a forum for Generation X rants, they are missing the point entirely. At its best, Waking Life is a compelling call to action for the re-awakening of the collective and individual senses of wonder and imagination that have been bastardized by the market-culture. If its guilty of being a little too gimmicky, its completely redeemed by providing a challenge to the audience, art, and the cinematic medium.
Movie Review: A beautiful film
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a beautiful piece of work. It truly captures the feeling of being in a dream--the animation is lovely & the score sets the mood perfectly. Even the sound is slightly muffled at times, to evoke a dream-like quality: like when you are half-awake & the sounds around you in the outside world are incorporated into your dream.It is a very thought provoking and profound movie. It's not really a movie that one would watch for a bit of light entertainment, as at times it can get fairly complex. But it is a very entertaining movie that stays in your memory & is fun to mull over and analyze--no interpretations are wrong.
I wish that I had dreams that were as cool and intellectually stimulating as the dreamer in this movie is having. Even the use of color throughout the movie is captivating!
The DVD is great, because it has some animation that ended up on the scrap-heap and live footage of the actors, before the animation was layered over them so fantastically.
It is a favorite movie of both my husband & I.
Movie Review: Brain Food
Summary: 5 Stars
Very thought provoking.The movie is a string of vignettes linked by a low-key but interesting plot. The vignettes are each "bite-sized" monologues or dialogues musing on the nature of life, death, free will, creativity, and existence. They are all done with a sense of humor, respect, and compassion. No one is "right" or "wrong"; thoughts are simply presented by the thinker. React and absorb what you will.
I saw this one night, and within three hours of waking the next morning, bought two copies, one for myself, one as a gift. I watched it twice the first weekend.
If you like to think when you watch a movie, or just to sit and think, this is a great movie to watch many times.
Content aside, the music is a very nice Jazz / Swing collection. It makes great background music, only dominating the scene on the few scenes when it's supposed to be in the forefront. The animation style is interesting. It can take a bit to get used to everything being in motion, but I found I became accustomed to that quickly.
Movie Review: One of a kind
Summary: 5 Stars
I guess you could say that "Waking Life" is a trip. When I first saw it I hadn't seen anything visually like it before (computer animation and live action digital video) though I've since seen the process used in TV commercials (Charles Schwab, for one). Some reviewers have said that the constant movement onscreen is distracting or irritating, but I thought it worked very well considering the situation being portrayed - a young man is caught in a lucid dream state, is unable to wake up, is confused and agitated in constantly changing surroundings. There is much philosophy and much yak-yak-yak. It's an interesting mix. With its focus on conversation, the film brought to mind another classic, "My Dinner with Andre," and some of the philosophy it contains brought to mind "The Matrix," but beyond that, "Waking Life" stands completely on its own.
It's an original, a mind bender, a thought provoker. Kudos to Richard Linklater and everyone involved. The soundtrack fits perfectly, too, by the way...
Movie Review: Inventive and Thought-Provoking
Summary: 5 Stars
The DVD of this movie does justice to the film that appeared in theaters, albeit there weren't many it appeared in. For some reason this jewel was overlooked for the animation category for the Oscars, which was as bad as many of the oversights that occurred this past year (Memento, Royal Tenenbaums, etc.) The movie was filmed like any other, than the film was illustrated by a group of artists that vary stlistically, from almost hyper-realistic to cartoonish. The characters and the scenery sometimes bob and weave on the screen creating a dream-like feel to the movie. The dialogue is composed mostly of many monologues given to the main character (a wandering Wiley Wiggins-the young kid from Dazed and Confused). Topics run the gamut, sparking philosophy, science, politics, morality nad life in general. Envelope these mind-blowing illustrations and topics in the idea that Wiggins can't tell if he is awake or dreaming and you've got the most original movie I've seen in years.