Review of Waking Life (2001) by Aren B — 16 May 2010
"Waking Life" would serve better as a manuscript or a series of short films than an actual feature length movie. The ideas presented within its many conversations are interesting and it has a clear understanding of postmodern philosophy, but the ideas do little to attach the viewer to the film in any way more substantial than a passing intellectual curiosity.
The rotoscoping animation is visually intriguing and led the way to the much superior "A Scanner Darkly," but it too only lends partial interest to the film. "Waking Life" is an intriguing film and far from a bad one, but it leads you to feel that youâ??d rather be living the types of conversations it depicts than watching them, no matter how visually unique they are.
It is a film that better serves the purpose of film discussion than film viewing, and that is its greatest flaw.
This review of Waking Life (2001) was written by Aren B on 16 May 2010.
Waking Life has generally received very positive reviews.
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