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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

The conversations were amazing, but what the "artists" did to these conversations…let's just say at best it was distracting, at worst insulting and entirely counterproductive. This movie would have been better as an audiobook.

Would rate a zero if I could. It was not nearly as profound as everyone proclaims it to be. I had to watch it for a philosophy class and was hoping to get the thought provoking interesting movie everyone seems to be talking but instead got a boring movie. With very surface level discussions about philosophy and life I genuinely feel dumber after watching this movie. It felt overly pretentious.

"Waking Life" is an extraordinary masterpiece of a film that defies classification and challenges the very nature of what it means to be alive. Directed by Richard Linklater, this film is a stunning work of art that seamlessly blends animation and live-action footage to create a visual and philosophical feast for the senses. The film follows a young man named Wiley Wiggins as he drifts through a series of dream-like encounters with various characters, all of whom offer unique perspectives on the nature of existence, consciousness, and reality itself. The film is a deep exploration of the human experience, with profound insights that will leave you pondering long after the credits have rolled. The animation style of the film is truly breathtaking. Each frame is a work of art in its own right, with vibrant colors and complex visual patterns that capture the surreal nature of the dream world. The use of rotoscoping, a technique in which live-action footage is traced over and transformed into animation, adds an extra layer of depth and texture to the film. But "Waking Life" is not just visually stunning; it's also a deeply philosophical work that explores some of the most fundamental questions of human existence. The film is filled with fascinating discussions about the nature of consciousness, the meaning of life, and the relationship between dreams and reality. Overall, "Waking Life" is an incredible cinematic achievement that will leave you both mesmerized and intellectually stimulated. It's a film that will stay with you long after you've watched it, and one that you'll find yourself returning to again and again to uncover new insights and revelations. Highly recommended for anyone who loves thought-provoking films that push the boundaries of what cinema can achieve.

Remember, since Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy portray the same characters in both, you're not done with Linklater's Before Trilogy until you watch Waking Life. Is Waking Life an imaginative look at the nature of reality, or Inception for philosophy majors? I think if you walk into this film with the expectation that all the debates about existence and time will rewrite your understanding of your own life, you run the risk of being flooded with word soup, nodding along to the dialogue while checking your watch, or completely checking out and dropping the film entirely. Instead, the best bet might not be to watch the film for the contents of the debates but for the conversations themselves, to get in touch with Linklater's ideas about the process of becoming self-aware and understanding your surroundings; it's not like everyone is going to relate to getting picked up at the station by a random stranger driving a car-boat. It's easy to write off the content of the film as academic prattle (given that virtually the entire runtime is existential speeches), but I think that's mostly just out of boredom or becoming desensitized thanks to big budget action movies; if you're willing to give the film a chance the tiny little episodes each have their own unique identity, and the rotoscoped visuals (later to be reused in A Scanner Darkly to emulate the effects of drug addiction) give the film the dreamlike quality that suits a main character that is, well, in a dream. It might not open your third eye and allow you to achieve enlightenment, but it is one of the more interesting examples of a director trying to ask questions about life without coming off as totally pedantic or silly. (3.5/5)

Super perfundo on the early eve of your day This is the interpretation that I choose, that many critics have overlooked. I propose that the theme of this movie is more about birth than death. "Waking Life", although based on the extremity of uncertainties, is in my eye, less than guaranteeing the prophecy of the end to our human spirit. It isn't even guessing that you'll die without knowing the grandness of our universe. It is quite simply telling you that you'll always be positive of your soul's origin, everything that will happen to you is a prescription of morality, with decreasing potency as distance increases, until the inevitably and infinitely mysterious unforeseeable end of action. The film, in my opinion, implies that we are witnessing the poetic birth of a soul into the sphere of life. All in all, Linklater has broken the mold of film production. His reminiscent air of nostalgia for the loss of time as golden as spent, does justice to the robbers of the human spirit, as the emotional outlook that captures us all when we look into the eyes of a photo album and feel the burden of a succession of guilt over the advancement of dreams.

Waking Life is hit or miss. I know I just excoriated Holy Motors for not having a plot and I understand any perceived hypocrisy, but Waking Life is more of a surreal experience wherein you happen to run into every wayward, Gen X philosopher on your travels throughout Austin, TX connected by an engorging thread, whereas Holy Motors is a series of vignettes lacking any discernible connection or pertinent takeaways. The conversations and soliloquies are far more captivating and would've been similarly enjoyable, had the film been live-action. Instead, the animation is a potpourri of various artistic styles via rotoscope. The nameless run-ins include a wide range of "characters" including Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (reprising their roles from Before Sunrise), Timothy "Speed" Levitch, Steven Soderbergh, Alex Jones, Charles Gunning, Kim Kirzan, and Richard Linklater himself, et al. Sure, there are lots of Gen X concerns over consumerism, which seems to have faded with the 2000s, but that aside it's hard not to find Gen X to be one of the better philosophical generations when it comes to purpose and our reality (whether addressing the collective or the individual), even if it comes off as pretentious. A plot does form here wherein the protag (Wiley Wiggins), becomes stuck in an Inception-like dream-loop and takes a more active role in questioning those he encounters in an effort to break the wheel. The final conversation, between the protag and Linklater himself, concerning Philip K. Dick and the Bible, was my favorite. I'm into movies and plays where people really just… talk. When I realized the form of this movie I was nervous that it'd feel like more of a Rolodex of Philosophy professors talking at you in a campus coffee shop, but there weren't any speakers I wanted to shut up. Like I said, it's hit or miss, but if you're interested in an hour and a half of existential, philosophical talks and mesmerizing animation, I can't recommend Waking Life enough.

Waking life qualifies as an interview documentary, but not as a Drama. It's nothing but a concept of rotoscopy.

A combination of live-action and cel animation oil paintings Acclaimed director Richard Linklater transcends between the boundaries of technology and imagination Wiley Wiggins makes his way through a world where everything is colorized, wavy, and more fluid in movement He starts to question if it's a dream or the world we currently live in The biggest question being posed is--Are we sleep-walking through our waking state or wake-walking through our dreams? Your life is yours to create, don't keep things inside the lines, are words inert?, are things intangible? The artistry in this is pretty cool mixing all kinds of animation styles from stencil drawings, oil paintings, abstract shapes, even caricatures Wiley visits a different person getting an idea of what human philosophy and the meaning of existence is The movie is unique and inventive with its style plus a smart script and worthy performances But a majority of the time I got motion sickness and it comes off as overly preachy with its ideas Linklater has made better movies in my opinion

Yeah, nothing's wrong with this film and it's everything I could've wanted. Why didn't this appeal to me? This is totally something I should love? Whatever, still REALLY like it, especially conceptually. Trippy visuals, fascinating existential philosophy, and a good cast make this an easy recommendation and it's definitely very fresh. A must-watch for fans of Richard Linklater, as it crosses The Before Trilogy with A Scanner Darkly. 8.1/10

What the flip did I just witness with my own two eyes? This isn't a movie, it's an acid trip that makes no sense. Well no acid trips make sense anyway but this isn't a movie movie. Personally I didn't like it. It has no story and some random characters. One aspect that I did like because it didn't have a story is that it talked about cool philosophical ideas of how the world that we live in is a facade and stuff but it got old real quick. This "movie" felt like a waste of time. It didn't have any new ideas and kinda felt like Fantasia for me. Its an hour and 20 minutes of nothing. Now if you want an acid trip of a movie you'll have a good time but if your taking it as a movie I didn't like it.

What the flip did I just witness with my own two eyes? This isn’t a movie, it’s an acid trip that makes no sense. Well no acid trips make sense anyway but this isn’t a movie movie. Personally I didn’t like it. It has no story and some random characters. One aspect that I did like because it didn’t have a story is that it talked about cool philosophical ideas of how the world that we live in is a facade and stuff but it got old real quick. This “movie” felt like a waste of time. It didn’t have any new ideas and kinda felt like Fantasia for me. Its an hour and 20 minutes of nothing. Now if you want an acid trip of a movie you’ll have a good time but if your taking it as a movie I didn’t like it.

Disjointed without any through line other than the knowledge that it is an endless series of short disconnected (mostly) vignettes. Love the Jessie & Celine fever dream return from the Before Trilogy

Waking Life is a truly unique animated movie whose deranged style help keep the viewer's attention, for what could've otherwise been a boring film if the viewer isn't interested in dialogue-heavy works. Don't get me wrong, they are really interesting conversations, it's the rotoscoped uncanny valley art direction that makes the movie stand out. Had it been live-action, who's to say it would've been a more mundane film that would be better suited to being a bunch of YouTube videos? Classic or no classic, Waking Life is certainly unique. Expect a review of Richard Linklater's other adult-oriented rotoscoped animated film, A Scanner Darkly soon.

Awesome Movie! It Showed Emotional Moments And Even though it is Rated R.