Review of Waking Life (2001) by Drecool95 — 30 May 2015

This might be an incredible, mindbending experience for someone with no knowledge of philosophy or someone who's more interested in the visuals than the content. But for me, someone with a major interest in philosophy who's really familiar with a lot of these topics, this film really hits you over the head in an uncomfortable way.

It's just the character walking from one giant mouth of a character to another, listening to their didactic rambling about introductory philosophical debates that really fall flat if you know the background to each of the fragments.

Linklater might as well have written a series of short essays on philosophy, because that's really all he does here. No true message, no philosophical thought left to the viewer, just a series of disconnected moments that don't really offer any sort of deeper meaning.

I enjoy the visuals of the film, but everything about the writing comes off as sloppy, preachy, and far too heavy-handed for my taste. Maybe my opinion will change with further viewings, but after my first viewing, I'd much rather watch a truly cerebral film that doesn't spoonfeed you ideas, and then later read a philosophy article, than be bombarded with this silly sort of "philosophical" movie.