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''Waking Life'' is a 2001 American
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...
adult animated An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a " minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of major ...
film written and directed by
Richard Linklater Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies ' ...
. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality,
dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
s and lucid dreams,
consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
, the
meaning of life The meaning of life, or the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "Wha ...
,
free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...
, and
existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and val ...
. It is centered on a young man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful
philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
discussions. The entire film was digitally rotoscoped. It contains several parallels to Linklater's 1991 film ''
Slacker A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early ...
''.
Ethan Hawke Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...
and
Julie Delpy Julie Delpy (; born 21 December 1969) is a French-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, includ ...
reprise their characters from the 1995 ''
Before Sunrise ''Before Sunrise'' is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The first installment in the ''Before'' trilogy, it follows Jesse ( Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) as they meet ...
'' in one scene. ''Waking Life'' premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, and was released on October 19, 2001, where it received critical acclaim; however, it underperformed at the box office.


Plot

An unnamed young man lives an ethereal existence that lacks transitions between everyday events and eventually progresses toward an
existential crisis In psychology and psychotherapy, existential crises are inner conflicts characterized by the impression that life lacks meaning. Some authors also emphasize confusion about one's personal identity in their definition. Existential crises are acc ...
. He observes quietly but later participates actively in
philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
discussions involving other characters—ranging from quirky scholars and artists to everyday restaurant-goers and friends—about such issues as
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
,
free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...
,
social philosophy Social philosophy examines questions about the foundations of social institutions, social behavior, and interpretations of society in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations. Social philosophers emphasize understanding the social ...
, and the
meaning of life The meaning of life, or the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life?", pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "Wha ...
. Other scenes do not even include the protagonist's presence but rather focus on a random isolated person, a group of people, or a couple engaging in such topics from a disembodied perspective. Along the way, the film also touches upon
existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and val ...
, situationist politics,
posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...
ity, the film theory of
André Bazin André Bazin (; 18 April 1918 – 11 November 1958) was a renowned and influential French film critic and film theorist. Bazin started to write about film in 1943 and was a co-founder of the renowned film magazine ''Cahiers du cinéma'' in 1951, ...
, and lucid dreaming, and makes references to various celebrated intellectual and literary figures by name. Gradually, the protagonist begins to realize that he is living out a perpetual dream, broken up only by occasional false awakenings. So far, he is mostly a passive onlooker, though this changes during a chat with a passing woman who suddenly approaches him. After she greets him and shares her creative ideas with him, he reminds himself that she is a figment of his own dreaming imagination. Afterward, he starts to converse more openly with other dream characters, but he begins to despair about being trapped in a dream. The protagonist's final talk is with a character (played by Richard Linklater) whom he briefly encountered previously in the film. This last conversation reveals this other character's view that reality may be only a single instant that the individual interprets falsely as time (and, thus, life); that living is simply the individual's constant negation of God's invitation to become one with the universe; that dreams offer a glimpse into the infinite nature of reality; and that in order to be free from the illusion called life, the individual need only accept God's invitation. The protagonist is last seen walking into a driveway when he suddenly begins to levitate, paralleling a scene at the start of the film of a floating child in the same driveway. The protagonist uncertainly reaches toward a car's handle but is too swiftly lifted above the vehicle and over the trees. He rises into the endless blue expanse of the sky until he disappears from view.


Cast

*
Wiley Wiggins Wiley Wiggins (born ) is an American game designer and film actor. A native of Austin, Texas, he is the nephew of Lanny Wiggins, who was a member of Janis Joplin's early band, The Waller Creek Boys. At the age of 16, Wiggins starred in Richard ...
plays the protagonist. The film features appearances from a wide range of actors and non-actors, including: * Eamonn Healy * Timothy "Speed" Levitch *
Adam Goldberg Adam Charles Goldberg (born October 25, 1970) is an American character actor, filmmaker, musician, and photographer. Known for his supporting roles in film and television, Goldberg has appeared in films such as '' Dazed and Confused'', '' Saving ...
*
Nicky Katt Nicky Katt (born May 11, 1971) is an American actor. Katt often plays unsympathetic characters, such as an irascible motorhead in ''Dazed and Confused,'' an ill-fated white supremacist child rapist in ''A Time to Kill'', and an embittered bu ...
*
Ethan Hawke Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a doc ...
as Jesse *
Julie Delpy Julie Delpy (; born 21 December 1969) is a French-American actress, film director, screenwriter, and singer-songwriter. She studied filmmaking at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and has directed, written, and acted in more than 30 films, includ ...
as
Céline Céline, sometimes spelled Celine, is a French female first name of Latin origin, coming from ''Caelīna'', the feminine form of the Roman cognomen ''Caelīnus'', meaning "heavenly".
*
Steven Prince ''American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince'' is a 1978 documentary directed by Martin Scorsese. Its subject is Scorsese's friend Steven Prince, known for his small role as Easy Andy, the gun salesman in '' Taxi Driver''. Prince is a raconteur w ...
*
Caveh Zahedi Caveh Zahedi (; born April 29, 1960) is an American film director and actor. Early years Zahedi was born in Washington, D.C., to Iranian immigrant parents. He studied philosophy at Yale University. Upon graduation, Zahedi moved to Paris, France ...
*
Otto Hofmann Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fro ...
*
Richard Linklater Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies ' ...
*
Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...
*
Kim Krizan Kim Krizan (born November 1, 1961) is an American writer and actress best known for originating the story and characters in the "Before Sunrise" trilogy with her writing on ''Before Sunrise'' (1995) and ''Before Sunset'' (2004), for which she was ...
* Louis H. Mackey *
Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direct ...
* David Sosa * Robert C. Solomon *
Steve Brudniak Steve Brudniak (born April 9, 1961, Topeka, Kansas) is an American artist, actor, filmmaker and musician. Known for highly crafted and unusual Assemblage (art), assemblage sculpture, his visual art career spans nearly four decades. His music, acti ...


Production

In a 2001 interview, Linklater estimated that the idea for the film came "before I was even interested in film, probably 20 years ago." For a while he felt the idea for the film "didn't quite work" calling it "too blunt, too realistic" stating that "I think to make a realistic film about an unreality the film had to be a realistic unreality". To create that visual effect, Linklater used an animation technique based on
rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...
, in which animators overlaid the live-action footage shot by Linklater with animation that roughly approximates the images actually filmed. Linklater employed a variety of artists, so the movie's feel continually changes, producing a surreal, shifting dreamscape. The animators used standard
Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software ...
computers. The film was mostly produced using Rotoshop, a rotoscoping program that creates blends between
key frame In animation and filmmaking, a key frame (or keyframe) is a drawing or shot that defines the starting and ending points of a smooth transition. These are called ''frames'' because their position in time is measured in frames on a strip of fi ...
vector shapes, which also uses virtual "layers", designed specifically for the production by
Bob Sabiston Bob Sabiston (born 1967) is an American film art director, computer programmer, and creator of the Rotoshop software program for computer animation. Sabiston began developing software as an undergraduate and then graduate researcher in the MIT Me ...
. Linklater used this animation method again for his 2006 film ''
A Scanner Darkly ''A Scanner Darkly'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, published in 1977. The semi-autobiographical story is set in a dystopian Orange County, California, in the then-future of June 1994, and includes an extensive p ...
''.


Release

''Waking Life'' premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...
in January 2001 and was given a limited release in the United States on October 19, 2001.


Reception

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
, the film has an approval rating of 81% based on 145 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "''Waking Life''s inventive animated aesthetic adds a distinctive visual component to a film that could easily have rested on its smart screenplay and talented ensemble cast." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which uses a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
, the film has a score of 82 out of 100 based on 31 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...
'' gave the film four stars out of four, describing it as "a cold shower of bracing, clarifying ideas". Ebert later included the film on his list of "Great Movies".
Lisa Schwarzbaum Lisa Schwarzbaum (born July 5, 1952) is an American film critic. She joined ''Entertainment Weekly'' as a film critic in the 1990s and remained there until February 2013. Career She has been featured on CNN, co-hosted '' Siskel & Ebert at the Mo ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...
'' awarded the film an "A" rating, calling it "a work of cinematic art in which form and structure pursue the logic-defying (parallel) subjects of dreaming and moviegoing," while
Stephen Holden Stephen Holden (born July 18, 1941) is an American writer, poet, and music and film critic. Biography Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963. He worked as a photo editor, staff writer, and eventually be ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote it was "so verbally dexterous and visually innovative that you can't absorb it unless you have all your wits about you".
Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the '' Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' found the film to be "lovely, fluid, funny" and stated that it "never feels heavy or over-ambitious". Conversely,
J. Hoberman James Lewis Hoberman (born March 14, 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, author and academic. He began working at '' The Village Voice'' in the 1970s, became a full-time staff writer in 1983, and was the newspaper's senior film critic ...
of ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'' felt that ''Waking Life'' "doesn't leave you in a dream... so much as it traps you in an endless bull session".
Frank Lovece Frank Lovece () is an American journalist and author, and a comic book writer primarily for Marvel Comics, where he and artist Mike Okamoto created the miniseries ''Atomic Age''. His longest affiliation has been with the New York metropolitan ...
felt the film was "beautifully drawn" but called its content "pedantic navel-gazing". In 2018, Richard Linklater addressed the potentially controversial inclusion of
Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...
in the film. In an interview with
IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...
, Linklater states, "I just thought he was kind of funny." He notes that he never imagined Jones would one day be taken seriously and that at the time, he didn't think much of including him. Nominated for numerous awards, mainly for its technical achievements, ''Waking Life'' won the
National Society of Film Critics The National Society of Film Critics (NSFC) is an American film critic organization. The organization is known for its highbrow tastes, and its annual awards are one of the most prestigious film critics awards in the United States. In January 2014, ...
award for "Best Experimental Film", the
New York Film Critics Circle The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...
award for "Best Animated Film", and the "CinemAvvenire" award at the
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...
for "Best Film". It was also nominated for the Golden Lion, the festival's main award. The film is recognized by
American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...
in these lists: * 2008 –
AFI's 10 Top 10 ''AFI's 10 Top 10'' honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute (AFI), the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008. In the special, various act ...
: Nominated Animation Film


Home media

The film was released on DVD in North America in May 2002. Special features included several commentaries, documentaries, interviews, trailers, and
deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar ...
s, as well as the short film ''Snack and Drink''. A bare-bones DVD with no special features was released in Region 2 in February 2003. A Blu-Ray was released in Germany and the UK.


Soundtrack

The '' Waking Life OST'' was performed and written by Glover Gill and the Tosca Tango Orchestra, except for
Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
's Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2. The soundtrack was relatively successful. Featuring the
nuevo tango Nuevo tango is both a form of music in which new elements are incorporated into traditional tango music, and an evolution of tango dance that began to develop in the 1980s. Dance Origins Prior to the 1990s, Argentine tango was taught with a didact ...
style, it bills itself "the 21st Century Tango". The tango contributions were influenced by the music of the Argentine "father of new tango"
Astor Piazzolla Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (, ; March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. His works revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed '' nuevo tango'', incorporating elements fro ...
.


See also

*
Dream argument The dream argument is the postulation that the act of dreaming provides preliminary evidence that the senses we trust to distinguish reality from illusion should not be fully trusted, and therefore, any state that is dependent on our senses should ...
*
Dream art Dream art is any form of art that is directly based on a material from one's dreams, or a material that resembles dreams, but not directly based on them. History The first known reference to dream art was in the 12th century, when Charles Coop ...
* Oneironautics * Simulated reality


References


Bibliography

* *


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Waking Life 2001 films 2001 animated films 2000s American animated films 2001 drama films American avant-garde and experimental films Animated drama films Films about dreams Magic realism films 2000s English-language films Fox Searchlight Pictures films Existentialist films Animated films directed by Richard Linklater Rotoscoped films Films about philosophy Films shot in Texas Films shot in Austin, Texas Films shot in San Antonio Metaphysical fiction films 2000s avant-garde and experimental films American adult animated films Before trilogy American independent films 2001 independent films