Film

Waking Life (2001)

Director: Richard Linklater

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Acclaimed in the US, Linklater's movie has Wiley Wiggins, the lanky longhair in Dazed & Confused, bumping pinball-style from one encounter to the next, with each acquaintance offloading his or her own pet theory of life, the universe and everything. Among them are the likes of Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, Austin, Texas's finest characters and crazies, and Linklater himself. It would be easy to dismiss as 'Slackers - Part Deux', but for the inspired conceit of shooting the film twice: once as a conventional DV feature, which then became the template for computer animator Bob Sabiston. Sabiston's woozy, pulsing dream imagery is something else. Wiley gradually realises that (a) he's in the middle of the weirdest dream of his life, and (b) he can't wake up. This is one movie where nodding off would seem an appropriate response. The endless philosophising is a bit sophomoric and more jokes would help, but this is one of a kind that grows more absorbing the longer it runs.

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