It is rare that a filmmaker can immerse his audience in an exceedingly unique and gripping atmosphere (the last times this happened was with U-Turn, Element of Crime, and Mystery Train) and it is even rarer that a filmmaker can accomplish something miraculous in such an atmosphere. Richard Linklater's Waking Life is that kind of achievement. It was filmed in Austin with live actors and then the footage was digitally animated on Mac Computers. As a result, each image is wildly alive giving the film a dizzying waviness and vibrancy. Describing the effect of this visual style is impossible but what is quite remarkable is that the film is stylized this way for a reason: It is about a young man (Wiley Wiggins) stuck in a dream world (or some sort of alternate reality) meeting dozens over dozens of people on the city streets. These characters talk and talk about fascinating concepts involving philosophy, sociology, exobiology, and, as the movie progresses and our nameless protagonist realizes that he is in a dream, lucid dreaming (the ability to realize that you are in a dream) is discussed more and more. Wiley Wiggins is one of the most underrated actors (his performance in Dazed and Confused is impossible to forget). It is surprising that he can evoke such a complex character when he is not allowed to have any character development in the story; he gives delicate vibes of social awkwardness, fear, and desperation. His lucid dream soon (I'd hate to use this cliché but) becomes a nightmare from which he is unable to awaken. In the end of the film, as he flies off into the sky, the tone is bittersweet: he may never be able to wake up but what is better than being trapped in one's endless curiosity? That is the point of the film: it is an exquisite ode to curiosity and what happens when a film encourages curiosity? It is slapped as being pretentious, of course. Some obnoxious critics of the film encourage one to read the philosophies that these characters talk about rather than wasting time watching them talk about these philosophies. What these dunces don't realize is that this film is meant to appeal to a mainstream audience (or at least someone who isn't a philosophy major). Linklater does not dumb-down these philosophies; instead they are filtered through slackers with an extreme amount of love for the material that they talk about. (As for the actors, in the tradition of Slacker, most of them are just interesting Austin locals. Linklater has always believed that what counts in movies is personality rather than multifaceted acting technique. While most of the actors are interesting here, a few of them deliver their dialogue in a horridly lifeless tone of voice that was absent in Slacker.) What could be more fun than a journey like this?
Review of Waking Life
