Waking Life (2001)

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writer (WGA):

Richard Linklater (written by)

Release Date:

7 March 2002 (Australia)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.

Plot Keywords:

Philosophy | Death | Metaphysics | Nightmare | Dream Sequence Within A Dream Sequence

Awards:

5 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Trevor Jack Brooks	...	Young Boy Playing Paper Game
Lorelei Linklater	...	Young Girl Playing Paper Game
Wiley Wiggins	...	Main Character
Glover Gill	...	Accordion Player
Lara Hicks	...	Violin Player
Ames Asbell	...	Viola Player
Leigh Mahoney	...	Viola Player
Sara Nelson	...	Cello Player
Jeanine Attaway	...	Piano Player
Erik Grostic	...	Bass Player
Bill Wise	...	Boat Car Guy
Robert C. Solomon	...	Philosophy Professor
Kim Krizan	...	Herself
Eamonn Healy	...	Shape-Shifting Man
J.C. Shakespeare	...	Burning Man

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some violent images.

Runtime:

99 min | Argentina:100 min | Australia:101 min | Germany:100 min | Spain:101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | USA:R (No. 38276) | South Korea:15 | Brazil:Livre | Italy:T | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A (Canadian Home Video rating) | Finland:K-7 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

The man in the car shouting through the loudspeaker is Alex Jones who has a public television and radio talk show in Austin, Texas, as well as a shortwave radio show, where he expresses similar and even sometimes harsher viewpoints.

Quotes:

Boat Car Guy:I feel like my transport should be an extension of my personality. And this is like my little window to the world... and every minute's a different show. I may not understand it. I may not even necessarily agree with it. But I'll tell you what I've accepted: just sort of glide along...

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005)

Soundtrack:

Ballade 3

Waking Life: philosophical therapy.

This film, if seen by someone who has DEEPLY considered the mysteries of life, will thoroughly delight. If you don't have a spiritual bone in your body, avoid. It has its flaws, but only in retrospect or through the eyes of another will they be found--and then forgiven if you have even an ounce of heart or a particle of transcendence.

It gets beneath one's radar and past one's filters.

For instance, it hits you perceptually with constantly varying animation styles, and after some time, you adjust to this so much that when you leave the theater, THE WORLD IS ANIMATED--a poetic way of saying that your connection to the proposition that all things are real is loosen WONDERFULLY!

And then, it hits you intellectually by parading a dozen+ viewpoints of persons who would not necessarily disagree with one another, but show the vast importance to us of the personal way we manifest our philosophical axioms and how much that depends on our individual interests-not all of us are psychologically constructed to be philosophers, but all of us can be analyzed to have a philosophical set of suppositions. Waking Life challenges these suppositions by merely presenting to you, in dramatic form, persons who vividly present their `takes' on the concepts and how they are impacted by them...especially emotionally.

Ultimately, this is not a movie, and it shouldn't be viewed as such; instead, one should approach it as therapy. See it, be with it, relax, and GROW. Every time you see it again, the concepts saturate your nervous system with reinforcing patterns that will later "echo" in your dynamics in synergistic ways. A seed gets planted and with repeated viewings the seed gets watered.

Go to this event. See it from a seat that's within the first ten rows of the theater; immerse yourself. Let go. All you have to lose (loosen) is identification with a reflection of the real you.