Waking Life (2001)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic 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.
Movie Info
Watch it now
Cast
as Himself
as Himself
as Himself
as Himself
as Himself
as Pinball Playing Man
as Himself
as Main Character
as Jesse
as Celine
News & Interviews for Waking Life
Critic Reviews for Waking Life
All Critics (145) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (117) | Rotten (28) | DVD (10)
Love-it-or-hate-it film best for older teens.
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.
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.
The pictures are gorgeous, and the words, well, if you listen hard enough, the words say exactly what one needs to hear: that is, to wake up and live.
An intriguing and visually impressive film squarely aimed at the art house crowd.
For a movie heralded as the cutting edge of visual innovation, Waking Life is disappointingly dull in every other respect.
Audience Reviews for Waking Life
The animation keeps interesting what Linklater's live-action Slacker didn't always, and it helps that, to some extent, the conversations in this film have a theme. It's engrossing, a real trip.
Super Reviewer
As with "Slacker", some of the pieces will likely feel more underwhelming depending on the viewer, but as a compilation of concepts and emotions all tied together through the common theme of dreams, "Waking Life" is a much more enjoyable and mature film than "Slacker" in both content and form, an existential rollercoaster that encapsulates all of Linklater's work up until that point (almost literally), while almost daring himself to top it. With this film, though, Linklater's genius as a thinker finally seems to escape its shackles, just as "Before Sunrise" unleashed him as a storyteller who works beyond limitations.
Super Reviewer
A fuck for all senses.
Super Reviewer
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