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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Waking Life
Fox Searchlight


7.5

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 59 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for language and some violent images

Starring Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Timothy 'Speed' Levitch, Nicky Katt, and Peter Atherton

In this animated drama, a man walks through what may be a dream, flowing in and out of scenarios and encounters with strange characters. (Fox Searchlight)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Richard Linklater
DIRECTED BY:	Richard Linklater
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 7, 2002 Video: May 7, 2001 Theatrical: October 19, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	99 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

The film is truly special, truly different -- a wondrous talky roundelay about and for people who love life.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

An amazing thing -- a work of cinematic art in which form and structure pursues the logic-defying (parallel) subjects of dreaming and moviegoing.

100

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

An astounding, one-of-a-kind movie.

100

Film Threat Chris Barsanti

If there is justice in this world, this is the movie that will get people talking again about the excitement of film.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

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.

100

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

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.

100

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Intriguing, arresting, delightfully refusing to be pigeonholed.

100

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A beautiful display of celluloid bungee-jumping.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Exciting and innovative feature.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

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.

Slate David Edelstein

One of the most inspired cases of the medium embodying the message ever captured on celluloid.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

That Linklater pulls off the innovative feat with hypnotic assurance is nothing short of amazing.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

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.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A smart, sensuous and sensory mind trip that caroms around a universe of thought.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Linklater's ravishing new movie represents a bold leap into the possibilities of technology.

The New Yorker David Denby

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]

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Like being jacked directly into Linklater's alpha waves, and the experience is bracingly new to movies.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The effect is dazzlingly beautiful and surreal.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

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.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Few American filmmakers put more faith in the ability of words to stimulate mind and heart.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

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.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Audiences looking for something fresh and different, not to mention a head trip, will find it in Waking Life.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

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.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

I'd like to think it's all a joke, that far from a dream this is actually Linklater's idea of a nightmare.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Leaves an impression, while its specifics fade almost immediately.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

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.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

All talk and no action. Never, however, has pedantic navel-gazing been so beautifully drawn.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 59 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chelsea E. gave it a10:
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?"

D McGinty gave it a6:
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.

[Anonymous] gave it a1:
Nauseatingly self-indulgent. I'm pretty sure we hashed through all these questions during college 101 classes, and in "deep" drunken conversations.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
I'm not sure how a movie can go deeper into the human-experience and still be intelligible. An incredible film.

Tom H. gave it a1:
Graphics were nausea inducing. First 20 minutes of the story were very hard to follow.

Bob E. gave it an8:
A film that requires repeated viewings, and even short 'rewinds' withing the film. Watch it once and then decide if you'd like to study it.

David T. gave it a0:
I feel as though this film created exactly what I believe it was trying to escape, an effortless post-modern dichotomy. "Being wierd...for the sake of being wierd!" Terrible film.

Waking Life Fox Searchlight

Waking Life
Fox Searchlight