Waking Life Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)October 29th, 2001
WAKING LIFE
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After his daughter Lorelei declares 'Dream is destiny,' writer/director Richard Linklater propels Wiley Wiggins ("Dazed and Confused") from the odd boat/car which picked him up into a world where dream is reality in "Waking Life."
This companion piece to Linklater's debut film, "Slacker," follows Wiggins' encounters with philosophers, rebels, criminals and artists as they discuss the meaning of human life. Shot on digital video, as is his upcoming film "Tape," "Waking Life" is given a trippy look by art director Bob Sabiston, who led a team of animators each assigned to 'paint' a specific character and segment of the film. The result is akin to the revolutionary rotoscoping used by Ralph Bakshi in "American Pop" with thirty different styles instead of one.
Along with Wiggins, we're presented concepts to ponder, like
how our bodies completely regenerate every seven years yet we remain essentially the same person, or Phillip K. Dick's assertion that we're all in 40 A.D. and everything since has been a dream. We meet Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, reunited lovers of "Before Sunrise," conjecturing that dreaming is simply entering a collective human memory, an idea further explored late in the film when Wiley gets a great idea from a character he's met in a dream.
Wiley keeps trying to wake up only to find he's dreamed it, when along comes a man who's learned to control his dreams. He teaches Wiley tricks on how to determine if he's still asleep (try a light's on/off switch) while promoting the fun that can be had while in the unwakeful state.
Wiley's dream even includes celebrity guest appearances by tour guide Speed Levitch of "The Cruise" and director Steven Soderbergh as themselves. Yet for all the ideas it presents, "Waking Life" doesn't always stick to its own theme. One violent scene and the ravings of an imprisoned criminal feel plugged into the wrong movie and break its flow.
"Waking Life" is an interesting, thought provoking experiment that doesn't always maintain the lofty heights of its conception.
B
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