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Waking Life

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Waking Life

R

Released Oct 19, 2001

1h 39m

Drama

Animation

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

81%

Tomatometer

145 Reviews

87%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Transcending the boundaries of technology and imagination, "Waking Life" is a revolutionary breakthrough in film animation. In "Waking Life," Wiley Wiggins ("Dazed and Confused") travels through a series of encounters and observations in a world that may or may not be reality. It is this surreal existence, flourishing with endless ideas and possibilities, that ultimately leads to the question -- Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?

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Critics Consensus

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.

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Love-it-or-hate-it film best for older teens.

Rated: 4/5

Dec 29, 2010

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Susan Stark

Detroit News

Rated: 4/4

Oct 18, 2008

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Emanuel Levy

Variety

This inventive animated film, which takes Linklater back to his roots in Austin and Slacker, represents a summation of all the philosophical concerns that have defined him as spokesperson for Gen-X.

Rated: B+

Oct 31, 2006

Full Review

Susan Sontag

Artforum

A melancholy youth ambles almost wordlessly through deep America -- rendered in dancy graphics -- receiving counsel from a parade of uproariously soliloquizing, exquisitely goofy pundits.

May 2, 2024

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Chuck Klosterman

Akron Beacon Journal

My sleep is never this exciting. I wish I could dream like this.

Rated: 4/4

Oct 27, 2023

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B. Ruby Rich

The Nation

Linklater and his animation collaborators have clearly had a lot of fun, morphing characters into their own conversational subjects, destabilizing their environs, throwing the material world into question.

Feb 25, 2020

Full Review

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David H

The graphics in this film are really good. I'm not a big fan of modern animation generally because it's just not very good or very interesting. The animation in this film is an exception, though. Lots of attention is paid to detail, and the backgrounds are fun to watch. There's one section where people are riding on a train, and the wealth of detail both inside and outside of the train is amazing. As for the film itself, though, it doesn't ever seem to go anywhere. I stopped watching halfway through because I figured there wasn't a whole lot more to be got out of watching the rest.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/21/25

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Emilio S

I you have watch a movier more than 10 times, it deserves 5 starts. Simply epic.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/02/25

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Isa B

The protagonist of Waking Life is having a seemingly endless dream that we, the audience, get to experience with him firsthand. The dream turns everyone he encounters into a philosopher, which dreams sometimes have a way of doing. Someone is always trying to tell you something. The dream world is one that I love to explore, and I don't mean via lucid dreaming so much as through the medium of film. The topic of filmmaking is mentioned more than once in Waking Life. The subconscious mind is a deep vault of ideas and information that is a more interesting place to explore at times than the so-called real world. This film captures that idea beautifully. The ever-changing rotoscope animation is literally perfect to bring this series of dreams to life. Personally, I love this film. Wiley Wiggens was the perfect actor for the lead role. He has this unassuming disposition much like the character he played in Richard Linklater's 1993 film, Dazed and Confused. I most definitely recommend this one! 94/100

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/25

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Peter G

An amazing, insightful, delightful trip! I had to pick up a physical copy of this.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/02/24

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Taiven L

By far the most pretentious, self-fellating film I have ever seen. I created an account just to rate this one movie, that's how bad it was.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

11/14/23

Full Review

Solomon K

One of the best esoteric, philosophical movies I've ever seen, but I would say you'd have to be in the right mindset to watch it. I still remember the part about how in a lucid dream light switches don't work, and from experience, they don't.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

10/21/23

Full Review

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Richard Linklater

Director

Wiley Wiggins

Main Character

Trevor Jack Brooks

Young Boy Playing Paper Game

Lorelei Linklater

Young Girl Playing Paper Game

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Synopsis

Transcending the boundaries of technology and imagination, "Waking Life" is a revolutionary breakthrough in film animation. In "Waking Life," Wiley Wiggins ("Dazed and Confused") travels through a series of encounters and observations in a world that may or may not be reality. It is this surreal existence, flourishing with endless ideas and possibilities, that ultimately leads to the question -- Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams?

Director: Richard Linklater
Producer: Anne Walker-McBay, Tommy Pallotta, Palmer West, Jonah Smith
Screenwriter: Richard Linklater
Distributor: Fox
Production Co: Independent Film Channel, Thousand Words, Detour Filmproduction, Fat Black Films
Rating: R (Some Violent Images|Language)
Genre: Drama, Animation
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 19, 2001, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.9M
Runtime: 1h 39m
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby A, Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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