From Deseret News archives:
Waking Life
Film review
Sure, there are some who find a meditative, animated/live-action exercise a pretentious, headache-inducing waste of time. But those with open minds will be rewarded with one of the most imaginatively loopy, wildly original cinematic experiences they've seen all year. (The "animated/live-action" description means the film was originally shot with digital recorders, then the images and actors were "drawn over" by artists using digital animation programs.)
It's difficult to say if "Waking Life" really has a plot, though it does consistently follow one character, an unnamed dreamer (the voice and character of Wiley Wiggins, from "Dazed and Confused").
He's trying to wake up, after having a nightmare in which he's been run down by a car. But instead, he finds himself floating over the city, encountering others who share with him their opinions about the meaning of existence and dreams.
Of course, the alternately jazzy and classical score by Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra helps set the proper tone, and there's also a certain delight in seeing actors reprise their roles from other Linklater films such as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy ("Before Sunrise"), Nicky Katt and Adam Goldberg ("Dazed and Confused"), and Louis Mackey (the "Old Anarchist" from "Slacker"). (Linklater himself pops up in the opening scene, helping propel Wiggins on his dream journey, and again in the closing scene, where he helps end it.)
"Waking Life" is rated R for brief use of strong profanity (in just one scene) and crude sexual slang terms (ditto), brief violence and gore (an animated shooting), as well as some brief drug content (discussion and images). Running time: 97 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com
Comments
Cast: Live-action and animation hybrid featuring the voices and caricatures of Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and others
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