Review of Waking Life

Wake Up

Waking Life, Richard Linklater's successor to his first movie, Slacker, is a series of vignettes that discuss subjects of physics, language, after-life, existentialism, and dreams. There is no plot per se other than the fact that your following Wiley Wiggens through a sort of dream like trance that takes him through time and space to have these philosophical one-on-one conversations with an assortment of fascinating people. While he sometimes is the audience for conversations between people, he still is our gateway into this other world where everybody has something to say about anything.

While the conversations and subject matter are involving and interesting to listen to, it's the animation that is the highlight of the movie creating an experience that is visually appealing in a way I didn't think possible outside of the Disney realm. Bob Sabiston is the head animator, along with a team of other artists, who has used the rotoscoping technique to it's fullest form. Having people and objects appear in the abstract is like watching a Graphic Novel on screen, where the art compliments the subject matter.

The visuals are hard to explain, and so are some of the conversations, so it's definitely a movie that has to be experienced first hand. It's amazing to watch and while not all of the subjects discussed are particularly interesting to hear for some people, it's still amazing to experience it, if not for the conversation but for the people involved. They're all unique and have something different to add in their own way.

This is a unique film if there ever was one. With no plot, no script, and some of the most amazing visuals you'll ever see, Waking Life is hopefully the first in a long line of interesting and thought provoking movies where listening to conversations is more entertaining then people getting killed in big firey explosions and shootouts on screen.

Posted on 02/12/08 by: matt2648 02:32 PM