Film Review: Waking Life (2001)

This is the sort of film that rides the fine line between rather interesting and rather pretentious. I’m not sure if it quite counts as an “obscure” movie, as I have heard it mentioned or talked about than most of the other films I’ve covered. Plus, it was made by Richard Linklater, a rather well-known indie filmmaker, famous for movies like Slacker, Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, and more recently Boyhood. However, I think the concept, style, and presentation of this film make it left-of-center enough to work for this blog, and while it does ride the line that I mentioned previously, I think that it stays a generally interesting experience throughout.

Waking Life is mostly a discussion and meditation on the perception/nature of reality and dreams. While we do mostly follow this unnamed young man throughout the film, most of the film is taken up by musings and conversations on said topics as well as human development and relations, socio-politics, and free will. The protagonist’s life seems to take a turn after he hitchhikes with these two guys in a boat car, the driver of which provides us with our first musing. After being let out, the young man is seemingly hit by a car, only to wake up back in his bed. As he goes through his daily life and the various conversations, he keeps waking up back in his bed and starts to realize that he can’t read his clock, or anything for that matter. This is a common sign of being in a dream, and he starts to worry because he can’t seem to wake up. He almost seems to semi-resign himself to this perpetual dream state after a while, with him even asking a character what it’s like to be a figment in a dream (a question which is seemingly ignored). However, the last character he talks to presents him with an existential thought that ultimately leads him to his final conclusion.

The film has a very interesting presentation. It seems to be a form of rotoscoping, which is an animation technique that involves tracing live-action movements to create the animation. However, this variation of the technique almost comes across as some sort of digital filtering, like a computer-generated version of paint. It’s definitely an odd look at first and you might have to adjust to it, but I think it does help to give the film a relatable yet also dissociative feeling. The people in the film all speak in a very natural and conversational way, which gives off a very down-to-earth vibe that engages the viewer even if the characters are discussing abstract concepts. At the same time, the animated filter often distorts the environments by moving them around in a drifting fashion while we’re focused on the character that’s speaking, as well as altering the character by morphing their personage to reflect what they’re discussing (e.g., a man’s head becoming a gear when talking about how humans function in life) or just to give off a suspiciously surreal sense (e.g., a person’s eyes growing larger and more prominent on their face). This hybrid between the approachable and the dreamlike crafts an experience that draws the viewer in while still challenging them, which goes hand-in-hand with the film’s loose plot that, while generally follows the young man and his situation, is not afraid to break away from the established story to encounter different people and perspectives (to be honest, the main character acts mostly as a facilitator for these conversation bits, though he still has a place to go in the end). However, the actual ideas/topics and how they are discussed in this movie can probably go one of two ways for the audience: some might find the ideas fascinating or at least add to the experience of the film, while others might find these same ideas rather pretentious and the whole exercise as being much of the same. There is a lot of existential and metaphysical talk in this film, such as what our reality truly is, how we’ve come to be the way we are and perceive the way that we do, what the dream state is capable of and how to control it, and whether or not we really have control over our lives. Personally, I felt like these subjects and analyses were a benefit to the film, as they almost seemed to represent the character’s mind pondering these sorts of thoughts in his perpetual dream state but told through avatars of the people he had probably hear them from. I’ll admit, I was a little skeptical at first, as these ideas weren’t exactly new to me and the delivery of the folks telling them had an almost “college-y” feel sometimes, which can easily give off an impression of self-involved smugness especially if you’re past that age. On the whole, though (and after I settled into the film’s style), I think it was rather effective, and while I don’t know if it gave me too much new to think about, it was an engrossing experience and I wanted to see where it was going. My compliments to the filmmakers, you took what might have been a wankery exercise and made it an overall successful film.

Waking Life is a solid semi-arthouse movie. I think it might make for a good introduction to contemplative and surreal films, since it does still have a grounding element to it that might make it more approachable to a slightly wider audience. Admittedly, though, it might still be a little too out-there or talky for general folk, and some might not take to the rotoscoped look or would find the ideas overblown, but I think it’s still worth a watch for those that might be skeptical. So take a trip into your thoughts and dreams, a little introspection (and extrospection) can do us all some good.