Waking Life

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

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

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.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

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

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.

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.

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.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Intriguing, arresting, delightfully refusing to be pigeonholed.

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.