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Still Dreaming
Similiar to Richard Linklater's "Slacker," "Waking
Life" doesn't have much of a plot. The "events" which
really resemble more of a series of conversations, revolve around
a character (voice/movements of Wiley Wiggins) who appears to be
caught in dreams he can't escape.
As animation styles change and the backgrounds
undulate strangely, Wiley drifts from character to character, including
Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Timothy Speed Levitch, and listens
to philosophical rants. Some of this will be familiar to anybody who's
ever joined a late-night dorm room bull session; other sequences
are literally lectures. There's talk about epistemology, the treacherousness
of language, free will, lucid dreaming, and the Holy Now.
"Waking Life" is an animated essay, an extended experimental
short, and if mind games such as "How do you know you're not
dead?" don't sound enticing to you, you might want to stay
away. Luckily, none of the conversations quite stoop
to stoned "How do we know that what's green to me looks green
to you?" levels,and if you enjoy a bit of ponderousness
and engage the ideas, you're in for an stimulating ride. "Waking
Life" is a film quite unlike any other, and in the impoverished,
dumbed-down marketplace of movies, it's a breath of fresh air.
The animation is extraordinary -- rotoscoping has come a long way
since Ralph Bakshi's "Lord of the Rings." In the most
satisfying and interesting bonus feature, software creator Bob Sabiston
shows in detail how the process works and which technical advantages
exactly are responsible for the look of "Waking Life."
Also included is the short film "Snack and a Drink" which
shows a more unrestrained and free-wheeling use of the technology.
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