Waking Life
(dir. Richard Linklater)
Way back before Dubya tarred it's good name, Texas was occasionally a cool place. The Butthole Surfers, ZZ Top (pre-Mtv) and Richard Linklater all herald from the Lone Star State. Richard Linklater has already made his ode to Texas in Dazed and Confused, and the success of that led to bigger things (The Newton Boys), then due to a lack of success, smaller things again.
In 2001 he kicked out two low-budget movies. First came 3-actor-shot-on-DV movie Tape, which was pretty good, then this film ñ Waking Life. Shot on DV, then animated over the top, the movie features many of Linklaters previous stars including Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delphy and Nicky Katt ñ as well as a nice cameo by Stephen Prince, re-telling his Gas Station story from American Boy.
It is more like a series of scetches and scenes, strung together through technique and the meandering, philosophising thoughts of the main character (Wiggins) as he tries to deal with his dreams. It makes for interesting viewing, but like many of Linklaterís movies it never quite hit the right note for me. Hopefully heís in form with School of Rock, because after that heís got a sequel to Before Sunrise coming outÖ and thatís bound to be another love/hate sitaution.
29th Oct 2003 - Tumblr
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