Waking Life

Waking Life is a philosophical and visual banquet for the mind. From scenes of immolation, floating and tango, to micro-waved burritos and existentialism, Linklater has created a provocative film.

Like a dream, the film fluidly moves from idea to idea or scene to scene without much explanation but with the implicit acceptance that the state of dreaming allows what reality does not.

There is no plot, coherence, heroes or villains. The content is just a series of speeches, verbal free-writing and conversations. But "Waking Life," which follows an unnamed, floppy-haired main character (Wiley Wiggins) through a series of travels, dreams and observations, is capable of enhancing your world view and changing your outlook on life each time you see it.

Typical plot questions are secondary to the exchange of ideas. Various conversations and monologues about known, personal and questionable philosophies (many about dreaming and that tme before we wake) take shape. A much-needed dose of existentialism colors the rants, raves, and ruminations of a unique cast of characters.

Existentialist philosophy permeates throughout the film. If it's the belief that "people have absolute freedom of choice and that the universe is absurd, with an emphasis on the phenomena of alienation and anxiety", Wiggins embodies it and shows that it's a hopeful philosophy. As he visits over 20 people, some who see him, some who don't, all offer him a bone to chew on their way of thinking. Particularly refreshing about the film is that so many different ideas are offered without shoving anything down the throat or sounding overly pretentious.

At a moment when the entire state of filmmaking is in incredible flux with a convergence of new technologies, Linklater gives us a film that appears to offer a wealth of possibilities for the future.

Always cathcing something news is yet another reason to love the film more deeply and make plans to come back to it again to soak in its essence. You feel a little bit wiser, a little more worldly and oh-so closer toward floating off to oblivion. Dream is destiny.

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