I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Why so much hype?

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Waking life is one of those movies, that in the middle of them you just know that It's the kind of movies that you know you are going to watch over and over again. it handles a bunch of the hardest questions that many intellectual and open minds ask in life, where you seem you have someone to speak with you about some of the ideas that go through your mind. Excellent movie.

Filmed as an indie quickie before going through its arduous and peculiar rotoscoping process in post, Waking Life is Richard Linklater's 2001 ode to the existential. Wiley Wiggins plays... well, who-knows-who, a young man drifting through a series of encounters with a range of characters (played by various actors including Linklater regulars Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and Adam Goldberg), all delivering unto him dense philosophical monologues or dialogues. The plot is as faint as a half-remembered dream; although it is implied that Wiggins' protagonist is killed by a car at the start, and I got the sense that in that terminal moment he is recalling a series of profound human moments throughout his life. If nothing else, the wispily connected scenes provide an accessible introduction to modern philosophy, covering topics such as free will, human potential, neuroscience, time, and the self. The only vaguely mainstream movie I can think of which is comparatively philosophically dense would be Cosmopolis, although Linklater's film doesn't have the emotional payoff of Cronenberg's. Fans of A Scanner Darkly (Linklater's 2006 Philip K Dick adaptation) will be familiar with the art technique he uses here. Sometimes it appears to be a simple case of watercolour-style painting over filmed imagery, but as the narrative progresses the pictures become more surreal and nightmarish; so, we're left with a range of styles from impressionist to minimalist to Gilliam-esque animated madness. Obviously Waking Life is hugely indulgent (Linklater even gives himself the climactic speech) but I don't see this as a criticism. The script comes across like a desk drawer full of scribbled ideas because it probably was. But what ideas they are, interrogating notions of memory, identity, and dream logic with skill and clarity. Only on occasions does the writing stray into condescending territory – the suggestion, for example, that we're all sleepwalkers who'll "sell our souls for minimum wage" is clichéd. More often than not, though, the words make us think. Crucially, they make us think for ourselves. Waking Life was made prior to 11 September 2001, yet released in October. "A new world is possible," one character says, oblivious to the cynical new world that was to come. I find there is a sadness in Waking Life's hopefulness about human potential. Toward the end it puts forward the idea that life may be but a dream after death – a moving metaphysical thought that seems somehow too abstract for a post-9/11 world; a world which has seen the Dream turned sour.

This film suffers the same problem as Crash (the 2004 film not the Cronenberg film, I haven't seen that yet), every single scene is about the exact the same thing. In this film's case it is philosophy. The concept was interesting but it would have been much better if the filmmakers had just filmed philosophy professors and rotoscoped it in a way to make the footage visually interesting. A massive problem with the film is that characters discuss philosophy and are never heard of again. If you are going to make a film about a single subject and not offer anything else at least make it a short film. Although in Before Sunrise the characters did chat about philosophy, they also talked about love and themselves allowing us to get to know them as people. At least Before Sunrise had a love story (offering more than Waking Life) and was visually interesting because of the location (the rotoscoping in this film looks ugly, the rotoscoping in A Scanner Darkly is much better but still a little off-putting, luckily that film actually has a plot so I can forgive it).I give the film 5/10 because the concept is good and did introduce me to some interesting ideas but sadly the film offered very little else and I don't think I'll ever watch it again. A pity, I wanted to enjoy this film because of Linklater but I couldn't.Edit: I have decided to rate this movie a 3/10. This is because it doesn't feel like a movie, it's just scenes tacked onto one another without much connecting them (if anything). (04/09/2016)

Richard Linklater is a well respected and renowned director in Hollywood, but when he feels he has something to say, he says it with artistic integrity and never talks down to his audience.This is one of the most inspired works of art i've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. the rotoscope feature of the film only enhances the philosophical and sociological ideologies. Linklater also explored rotoscoping to a more impressive degree with A Scanner Darkly some years later. i like to watch this film as often as i can, and completely recommend it.