Cheap Waking Life (Video) (Ethan Hawke) (Richard Linklater) Price

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Customer Reviews of Waking Life

A mixed bag, but not without merit
"Waking Life" is not quite an experimental film, though that's where its heart is. Essentially a low-budget Richard Linklater film given a digital animation makeover, "Life" takes on metaphysics, dream interpretation, Joseph Campbell, film criticism, and I'm sure several other grad school subjects as well. It steadfastly refuses to adhere to the "show it, don't tell it " theory of screenwriting, so much so that "My Dinner With Andre" begins to look like a Jerry Bruckheimer project in comparison. The rotoscoped animation (they actually filmed actors live and traced them frame by frame) is a mixture of styles, with some shots being intentionally primitive, and some achieving a very eerie, stylized realism. Often it is quite gorgeous too look at, but sometimes there's a brownian shifting of backgrounds and figures within the frame that can be rather jarring (maybe it comes from rotoscoping hand-held camera work, but sometimes it happens in what appear to be static scenes, suggesting that it is an animator's choice).

So, to recommend it? That's a hard question. I did enjoy it, and I think I will discover interesting things that I didn't catch in initial viewings, but I have a feeling that the audience for this film is extremely limited. It's not even a good taste/bad taste issue-I think as many serious art film fans will find this as tedious as the mainstream crowd. It does tend to meander around without a true center, but there are occasions, such as late in the film, when the main character tries to change his dream, that are really well written and even (almost) dramatic. I'd say if you like Linklater's other films, you should have a good time with this. Likewise, if you are predisposed to enjoy lofty discussions with friends this might be for you. It's bargain-basement cheap for a DVD, so it won't set you back too much, and it has some nice extras (comentaries, shorts, and a demonstration of the digital rotoscoping process, for the curious). If you insist on strong plots and active characters, though, consider yourself warned.

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This review reflects the film, not the DVD
which I assume I'll review again once I buy it.
Waking Life is for the most part, a successful experiment, that is beautiful to watch unfold. I'm a pretty big Richard Linklater fan, from Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, and even School of Rock (I've yet to see Tape or the Newton Boys, however). I like him, because he seems to have a real love for making movies. But also, he seems to have a love for life. Think about it, not counting School of Rock most of the movies above are about wandering (and wondering) and talking and learning, and living. I don't think this movie is pretentious because that would imply Linklater is trying to be something he's not-and he is not doing that. He genuinely cares and is interested by these ideas, and I think if you thought this movie was pretentious, you weren't watching it close enough.
Yes, the movie is fascinating to watch. Different animators were brought in for every scene, right? Well, it shows. Sometimes, the scenes have a strong abstract feeling (like the scene with Wiley and the red-headed woman) where the characters have rough geometric shapes and blank or abstract backgrounds. Sometimes, they're very realistic (like Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy scene). All of it is great to watch, however.
The "plot" of this movie, is that Wiley Wiggins is in a dream from which he cannot wake up. He floats and flies (on occasion) from scene to scene, and each scene features someone talking to him about anything. However, he's not in every scene, so some of the movie (in my opinion) is even more abstract than that: it's just a film about dreaming and living, sometimes starring Wiggins. Follow? Good.
And now for the scenes themselves. Most are good, and sometimes even enthralling. The best scenes in my opinion are scenes that unravel like someone telling you a great story (the ones that immediately come to mind are the ones with Wiley and the two guys that explain to him how you know you're in a dream, and the one at the very end with Linklater himself). Some are a little long-winded but none are boring, if only because of the great animation.
The only scenes that give me trouble are the one with the prisoner planning revenge, and the scene with the bartender telling the man about how he almost got killed (which ends bizarrely). I just don't know what to make of them.
The worst part of the film is that, yes, you are basically watching people talk for about ninety minutes. Until the end scene with Linklater, it can be a tad grating (especially on a first viewing) towards the middle-end, but you'll keep watching. I think this movie uses the film medium to its extent...I mean, can you imagine reading the novelization of this movie? It strikes a balance between abstract but watchable. If I have another problem it's that I wish it could be a little more exciting, like if the stories being told were visualized, but that would mean changing the whole format of the movie and going for something more obvious.
This movie itself is like a dream. It leaves you feeling a little dazed at the end and you're not quite sure what to make of it. It sure is inventive though and unique, though. I like Waking Life because it's full of ideas and original thoughts, maybe too many of them, which is why it's not exactly a masterpiece but certainly not a movie to pass over like so many bad Hollywood pieces of junk. I like it because it's a movie that has too many ideas, instead of too few.

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Beautiful but boring!!!
Richard Linklater has made some good movies and I appreciate what he's trying to do here, but the film was downright excruciating to watch. I can't imagine anyone finding it interesting, but apparently, many do. Maybe Philosophy itself just bores me. I did think the animation was cool, and the Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy Before Sunrise scene was inspired, otherwise, this film is better left on the shelf. It is definitely not for all tastes.