Waking Life
Quick Take: A man in a dream state encounters many characters who, one by one, talk about their views on the meaning, perception, and reality of human existence.
Director
99 minutes
running time
2001
year released
Other
genre
R
rating
Torifan’s Rating...
Torifan’s review: Director Richard Linklater has done an amazing thing with this film; he has taken one of my very favorite subjects (dreams, lucid dreams) and has made an original and brilliant film on the topic. In this film, the main character stays in a dream world where he is continually confused as to whether he is awake or asleep. He gets tips along the way... the reocurrence of certain characters, the fact that he can never read the time, and the odd structure of the dreams. What makes this movie even more fascinating is that the entire film is done as a drawing, or actually many different drawing styles. This is no cartoon, mind you. This is like a graphic novel put on film. The subject matter is interesting too: one man rants about what he will do when he gets out of prison, four men philosophize while walking down the street... there are a lot of commentaries here, too many for me to mention. If you enjoy thought-provoking films, this is for you. This is the opposite of the 'big Hollywood action film,' and I for one welcome such a fresh approach.
Cast:
Brooks, Trevor Jack
Linklater, Lorelei
Wiggins, Wiley
Gill, Glover
Hicks, Lara
Asbell, Ames
Mahoney, Leigh
Nelson, Sara
Attaway, Jeanine
Grostic, Erik