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thomfanning
Reviews
Waking Life (2001)
Pretentious fluff
I am staggered at the positive reviews of this film. So I feel I must offer some balance. Firstly there is a lazy use of a visually unpleasing unoriginal form of animation. It is simply distracting. The dialogue commits the worst sin of making a self conscious effort to be seen as an intelligent and savy commentary on life and to be seen to be dealing with some otherwise untouched and profound issues. I cringed from the beginning. The overly articulated language hides a series of very ordinary or even pompous viewpoints which at times are delivered at a annoyingly rapid rate. The screen writer/film maker in my opinion was too concerned with giving the impression of art and intellectual depth and originality but it is schoolboy stuff really. This flick is a near empty vessel with any slightly insightful messages contained within it being disregarded totally by me due to my aversion for smug philosophizing. The final product unfortunately comes across as a pretentious movie and I advise others to steer clear if you have an ounce of smarts.