Waking Life Movie Information

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Movie Information

Overall Rank: 2630

Average Rating: 2.8/4

# of Ratings: 82

Theatrical Release Date: 10/19/2001

Language: English

Genre: Animation, Drama

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Richard Linklater

Actors: Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Caveh Zahedi, Robert C. Solomon, Adam Goldberg

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 07/10/2019

A weird crossroad between drama and documentary, "Waking Life" makes you think more than any animated film ever made.

mitchellyoung - wrote on 03/28/2012

Not to be taken as pure entertainment, this dreamy collage of rotoscoping and intellectual conversation is an extension of Linklater's obsession with everyday debate and discussion. Some of the content is interesting, some of it a little snobbish and heady. As a whole, though, the film is fascinating, if you're in the right mood to digest it.

Allison - wrote on 08/01/2008

The movie seemed over-intellectualized to me. Everyone talked like they were graduate students and it was moody. I had different expectations I guess.

cinegeek.de
Producer

Träume

cinegeek.de - wrote on 05/31/2016

Our Daily Free Stream: Richard Linklater - Waking Life. Linklaters neuer Film Everybody Wants Some startet im Kino! Deshalb gibts heute Waking Life. - Wieviel von Richard Linklaters Waking Life mag wohl ein Traum sein? Vielleicht sogar alles? Der Held träumt, dass er aufwacht. Er spritzt sich Wasser ins Gesicht, geht hinaus und träumt wieder. Wir befinden uns aber nicht in einem surrealen Traumfilm. In Waking Life ist die Konversation genauso echt wie faszinierend - der Träumer muss intelligent sein! Oder doch nicht? Womöglich gibt er nur das wieder, was er so hört? Eine Frau erzählt ihm in einem Cafe von ihrer Idee einer Soap und er fragt sie, wie es sich anfühlt, eine Figur aus seinem Traum zu sein. Sie kann das nicht beantworten - wie auch, wenn sie nur ein Charakter seiner …

Nerva
Director

This movie thinks it's better than you

Nerva - wrote on 01/29/2010

Never before have my eyes hurt from such horrible cinematography while my ears and brain suffered a similar fate due to the movies overbearing pretentious self absorbed ramblings. Its so full of itself it reminds me of that smug episode of south park. When will people learn that using big words does not make you insightful? There's only one Kevin Smith and you are not him. I find it especially funny the amount of big words used either incorrectly or made up entirely. The only time any of the conversations in that movie would seem poignant is if you're sitting in a circle waiting for the bong to get to you. The movie calls itself 'groundbreaking' because it's done entirely with rotoscooping. ... Apparently by a 5 year old with a shaky hand. Roto isn't supposed to look like that and if …

mimschkin
Director

Is there such thing as 'too intellectual'?

mimschkin - wrote on 01/25/2010

I'm sure this film was ground-breaking at the time for its unique animation style, which sort of jiggles across the screen in a liquid fashion, but this film is not one that I would recommend. The 'story' is that a boy experiences various lucid dreams in which he talks to numerous intellectual and academic boffins about the general topic of 'life and stuff'. While the film is fairly good at conveying a dream-like state through the wibbly animation, the whole thing seems portentous and self-important. Scenes like one where some professor is going on about existentialism I'm sure are very interesting, but all I can think of is the fact that his moustache is jiggling somewhere across the screen, whilst his face is doing something completely different at the other side of the screen. …