***1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Wiley Wiggins, Speed Levitch, J.C. Shakespeare, Nicky Katt, Adam Goldberg, Cahveh Zahedi, John Christensen, Bill Wise, Robert C. Solomon, and Richard Linklater
Directed & written by Richard Linklater, animators include Wiley Wiggins, Jean Caffeine, Paul Archer, and Sean Beck.
2001 R
Dozen-or-So Best Films of 2001
With “Mulholland Drive,” “Memento,” “A Beautiful Mind,” and “Vanilla Sky” all nominated for Oscars, 2001 seems to have been the year for the surreal. Not least among them, despite being overlooked by the Academy, is “Waking Life,” the adventures of a college-age boy lost on the streets of Austin, or maybe lost in his own mind. “Waking Life” is not a plot or even a character-driven film, but uses a progression of vignettes to celebrate curiosity, imagination, and the act of dreaming. What’s more, the movie expresses itself with the freedom of animation, which is so often used only by cutesy kid’s fare or violent adolescent fantasies.
On its surface, “Waking Life” is like a compendium of the best discussions overheard in college towns. Young Wiley Wiggins wanders from conversation to conversation, pushing strands of dark hair behind his ears. He listens in on a lecture about the freedom of existentialism. He talks over lunch with a professor who believes that evolution is speeding up to the point that it will be visible within one generation. He visits a prisoner kept alive by his own visions of revenge. Wiley sits alone in a movie theater, eavesdropping on two filmmakers and the use of film as capturing a moment in God’s mind. We hear the thoughts of Lorca, Kirkegaard, St. Augustine, and others. So on and so on, as Wiley moves from conversation to conversation. My favorite is the long-hair perfecting his ability to see in all directions at once while dreaming.
Ideas come at Wiley with a machine gun pace. They are presented not so much for depth but as samples at an intellectual buffet, or as reminders for those of us whose minds have grown complacent. We hardly have time to digest a diatribe against the paralyzing constraints of society before we meet a boy who thinks he’s from another planet and is about to return. “Waking Life” is about the atmosphere of intellectual exercise, and not the specific promotion of any one idea. The movie prefers curiosity instead of certainty; right after we hear one paradigm another comes along to question it.
The film’s second layer is the progression of Wiley’s encounters from the intellectual to the subconscious, and finally into the metaphysical. Evolution, science, and dogmatic philosophy play early. But as Wiley wonders why he can never see the numbers on his digital clock, or why he seems to float from place to place, his world expands into the boundlessness of a dream. The soul comes last, as night falls over Austin. Like “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Waking Life” is in awe of mankind’s ability to reason, but feels that intellect is not the great goal of existence.
Some people think of movies in the same way I think of video games, that is, as an insouciant distraction laced with explosions. For them “Waking Life” runs the risk of being no more than a pretentious revisit to freshman philosophy. Lucky for them “Waking Life” is an ecstatic visual journey as well, using a groundbreaking animation technique in which live images are recorded with a digital camera, then overlaid with all manner of color and imagery. If a character talks about God lightning might just come out of his palm. If someone mentions the natural laws that make all living creatures out of water he might start to gradually fill up like a jug. Most of “Waking Life’s” art comes from a dozen or so artists freely interpreting Wiley and those he meets. Sometimes what we see is detailed, sometimes it’s abstract, but the walls are usually shifting like an acid trip, and when Wiley shakes with laughter usually something shakes with him. Even the viewers most stubborn about “Waking Life’s” brains will probably succumb to the splendor and variety of its looks.
“Waking Life” is probably best enjoyed on DVD, where there’s the continuing temptation to hit pause and talk to someone about what the cartoons have just said. The DVD also contains earlier works by the animators, including a bizarre trip to the soda fountain, and an instructional tour of their equipment. Commentary with Wiley Wiggins and director Linklater reveals the identities of those Wiley meets, almost all of them well-known Austin types.
Movies with as many ideas as “Waking Life” tend to form relationships with viewers. Some movies give up all their goodies at once and we have no need to go back for more. But my thoughts on “Waking Life” will change in the years to come; sometimes I’ll say to it “you’re stuffy and pretentious!” and sometimes “you’re brilliant and insightful!” Any movie that can do that must be something special, and especially one so obviously filled with joy about humans being the thinking beasts.
WHAT MY DAMN WIFE THINKS:
"As I see it, 'Waking Life' either wanted to remind me to think about philosophy and the meaning of life and dreams as I go about my daily life, or it wanted to actually present these philosophies and teach me something. If the former, a 30 minute short film would have sufficed; two hours of this becomes repetitive, arrogant, and condescending. If the latter were the purpose, and I was supposed to learn something, I didn't. But not for lack of trying, I assure you. I found the conversations interesting, but they were presented for a few minutes each, rapidly paced, and drenched in elevated, complex language which I was not given the chance to dissect, much less digest. After half an hour, I was completely frustrated. The animation, however, was above reproach, as was the acting. Two stars."
Finished August 28th, 2002
Copyright 2002 © Friday & Saturday Night