Kat's Film Reviews: Waking Life

Sunday, January 25, 2004

Waking Life

IMDB sometimes pulls an Amazon and recommends a film similar to the one you've pulled up information about. In the case of Waking Life, it recommends Mulholland Dr. Yes, that's a trippy movie as well, but I think a more fitting recommendation would be My Dinner with Andre. Both these films have little to no plot and contain almost nothing but philosophical ramblings and musings. The big difference is that Waking Life tries to merge the images with the discussions the characters are having. He does this by painting on the film. Yup, you read that right -- he animates the characters by painting over what he's shot (i.e., rotoscoping). So, you know there are real, live human beings behind what you're seeing on screen. It's a very odd effect. Instead of seeing humans engaged in discussions, we essentially see the discussions themselves. The animation becomes the discussion -- that which we can never see that exists outside but attached to our lives, e.g., the afterlife, society, language, dreams, and (not too surprising) cinema. It's a fascinating concept, and the film gets high marks for this approach. I don't think it's for everyone, though. There are some funny parts, but few and far between, and the heavy intellectual content may strike some people as grandstanding. I personally think it's a film that needs to be watched every 5 years or so...just like My Dinner with Andre.

year: 2001
length: 99 min.
rating: 3.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243017/combined

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