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Waking Life
Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    I have seen Waking Life three times now. I want to see it again -- not to master it, or even to remember it better, -- but simply to experience all of these ideas, all of this passion, the very act of trying to figure things out.
  2. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    100
    The film is truly special, truly different -- a wondrous talky roundelay about and for people who love life.
  3. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    100
    Intriguing, arresting, delightfully refusing to be pigeonholed.
  4. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    100
    A beautiful display of celluloid bungee-jumping.
  5. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Chris Barsanti
    100
    If there is justice in this world, this is the movie that will get people talking again about the excitement of film.
  6. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    100
    An amazing thing -- a work of cinematic art in which form and structure pursues the logic-defying (parallel) subjects of dreaming and moviegoing.
  7. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    100
    Not only does this film make you think, it makes you want to think. Few films -- few works of art of any stripe -- can claim that.
  8. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    100
    An astounding, one-of-a-kind movie.
  9. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    90
    It's the perfect marriage of music and animated movement. But even when there's no music playing in Waking Life, the movie's lyricism is sustained by the way it looks and feels.
  10. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    90
    That Linklater pulls off the innovative feat with hypnotic assurance is nothing short of amazing.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    90
    So verbally dexterous and visually innovative that you can't absorb it unless you have all your wits about you. And even then, you may want to see it again to enjoy its subtle humor and warm humanity.
  12. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    90
    One of the most inspired cases of the medium embodying the message ever captured on celluloid.
  13. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    90
    A smart cartoon about the life of the mind. It's about the fuzzy border between dreaming and living. It's thoughtful, provocative, liberating and fun.
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Rosenbaum
    90
    Exciting and innovative feature.
  15. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    88
    Linklater's ravishing new movie represents a bold leap into the possibilities of technology.
  16. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    88
    A smart, sensuous and sensory mind trip that caroms around a universe of thought.
  17. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    80
    Like being jacked directly into Linklater's alpha waves, and the experience is bracingly new to movies.
    All this critic's reviews
  18. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    80
    The effect is dazzlingly beautiful and surreal.
  19. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    80
    For the battered American independent cinema, Linklater's movie is the highest form of life seen in the last couple of years. [12 Nov 2001, p. 138]
    All this critic's reviews
  20. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    78
    The pictures are gorgeous, and the words, well, if you listen hard enough, the words say exactly what one needs to hear: that is, to wake up and live.
  21. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    75
    Few American filmmakers put more faith in the ability of words to stimulate mind and heart.
  22. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    Might have been unbearable if Linklater hadn't filled it with so much self-deprecating humor, undercutting the pretentiousness whenever it threatens to become too thick.
  23. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    75
    A breakthrough animated film -- a trippy cross between "Yellow Submarine" and "My Dinner With Andre" that will leave some audience members struggling to stay awake and others reaching for a toke.
  24. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    70
    Individual artists were assigned their own characters and given free rein -- characters and locations shift on a dime from naturalistic to baroque -- with the result that the movie's formal imagination surpasses and redeems the banal tedium of some of the dialogue.
  25. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    Audiences looking for something fresh and different, not to mention a head trip, will find it in Waking Life.
  26. New Times (L.A.)
    Reviewed by: Gregory Weinkauf
    70
    While much of the film is as scattershot as life itself, there are a few superb sequences involving lucid dreaming that really get down to business.
  27. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    67
    I'd like to think it's all a joke, that far from a dream this is actually Linklater's idea of a nightmare.
  28. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    60
    It's a cult movie in search of a cult. It'll probably find one. It certainly looks and feels like no other movie ever made.
  29. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Leaves an impression, while its specifics fade almost immediately.
  30. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Frank Lovece
    40
    All talk and no action. Never, however, has pedantic navel-gazing been so beautifully drawn.
  31. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: J. Hoberman
    40
    Waking Life doesn't leave you in a dream, specifically the dream of Linklater's previous films, so much as it traps you in an endless bull session.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.5 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 71 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 46
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 46
  3. Negative: 11 out of 46
  1. ChelseaE.
    10
    This film was simply mind blowing. I watched it every night before I went to bed for about 3 months, until I let someone borrow it and they lost it. It really opens your mind and your eyes to the simple truths of life and existence. From scenes of optimism to existentialism, there is a story for every type of perspective. One of my favorite quotes from the movie: "Hey. Could we do that again? I know we haven't met, but I don't want to be an ant. You know? I mean, it's like we go through life with our antennas bouncing off one another, continuously on ant autopilot, with nothing really human required of us. Stop. Go. Walk here. Drive there. All action basically for survival. All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along in an efficient, polite manner. "Here's your change." "Paper or plastic?' "Credit or debit?" "You want ketchup with that?" I don't want a straw. I want real human moments. I want to see you. I want you to see me. I don't want to give that up. I don't want to be ant, you know?"… Full Review »
  2. DMcGinty
    6
    I seem to be the only person that I know that liked this movie. It's good if you just don't take it too seriously. It's not particularly deep or philosophical. It's just a film of whimsical visuals backed by ambient lectures on post-modern nothingness.… Full Review »
  3. [Anonymous]
    10
    I'm not sure how a movie can go deeper into the human-experience and still be intelligible. An incredible film.
See all user reviews »