"Waking Life"

[Anti-Xocial]

A truly remarkable Independant film by Richard Linklater, he wrote, directed, filmed and participated in it!
The film is a genuine creative gem! Linklater, integrated real film, with cartoon and computer technology and came out with this philosophical and thought-provoking animated feature.
I saw it last night, and my initial reaction was first to switch channels BUT, I decided to give it another (15-minute) chance; Later, I realized how lucky I was for having done that!

I won't give the point away but, it is really hard describing it without making it sound amazingly boring (which it definitely wasn't!!):
Basically, you follow the main character, Wiley Wiggins, and meet all the different characters and people he meets on his path of "Coinsidence". He speaks to all sorts of intelligent minds and hear them out on their take on LIFE, truth and death. It was, without any doubt, one of the best movies I have seen this year!

If anyone sees this, please be sure to write back on what you thought of it. I am interested in what others here think of it.

Link:

http://comedymovies.about.com/librar...afpr102401.htm

[soundtest]

I this movie...

At times it can seem like a PHIL101 masturbation session, but I was actually able to lucid dream after watching it.

[Anti-Xocial]

Originally Posted by soundtest

I this movie...

At times it can seem like a PHIL101 masturbation session, but I was actually able to lucid dream after watching it.

oh lucid dreaming, that sounds so cool... if only I could... but then again, what if you are stuck in that nightmare zone of never wake up again? or you don't know if you are dreaming or are awake anymore?

How did you do it?

[soundtest]

SPOILERS (??)

After watching the movie, I kept remembering the scene which explained that lighting is very difficult to adjust while dreaming. So for about a week after watching it, I would always check the light switch in a room (whether I thought I was awake or not - this is key.. you have to do it in your 'waking life'). One time I tried and the switch didn't work... immediately I remembered the movie. Everyone in the room looked at me with sinister eyes and I knew I was dreaming. I think I woke up from panic that time. Another time I was lucid and was being chased by someone... I knew it was a dream but I was too scared to do anything about it. Instead of thinking "I'm dreaming! I can do whatever the fuck I want!" all I could think of was... "how the fuck do I wake up... a dream could feel like a lifetime and only be a few minutes in reality"

SPOOKY but cools

[Royal Tenenbaum]

SLACKER IS SIMILIAR AND WAY BETTER.

[Anti-Xocial]

I haven't seen that yet

[Protoclown]

I noticed a copy of this sitting around my living room. Guess one of my roommates picked it up. I'll have to check it out.

[wreckreation]

THIS MOVIE IS A PIECE OF CRAP.
It is just like the matrix in that it sucks the audience's dick and makes them feel smart.

[crash0814]

Been meaning to see it for a while. Ah what the hell, I'll just download it off Kazaa.

[Ooner]

It made me sleep.

[Rongi]

Originally Posted by wreckreation

THIS MOVIE IS A PIECE OF CRAP.
It is just like the matrix in that it sucks the audience's dick and makes them feel smart.

LINKIN PARK RULZ MAN :highfive

[wreckreation]

lol you like movies that make you feel smart. Thats pathetic. You like music that isn't mainstream just so you can feel hip. All your linkin park shit just makes me grin since you babbled the whole time about how you "just don't like them" yet OBVIOUSLY have some sort of a stigma against them. You don't like them but you haven't the musical knowledge to formulate any reason as to why. So, like the fuckign pathetic loser you are you just go along with the status quo in backing what's simply not on mtv. We can talk music, we can talk movies. We can talk abotu whatever you want and you're just gonna come out like a bitchy little kid. The best part of all is that i am PAID on my musical know how in what is popular along with technical skill.

[soundtest]

THIS MOVIE IS A PIECE OF CRAP.
It is just like the matrix in that it sucks the audience's dick and makes them feel smart.

So what's the cut off for acceptable dialog wreck? Fart jokes?

I mentioned that at times it seems like an introductory Philosophy class and at times just seems totally fucking pretentious. But it brings up an interesting topic that is not explored too often and does it in a creative and visually interesting way. What would you say is a good movie that doesn't make you feel smart?

[wreckreation]

There are plenty of movies that don't directly try to appeal to the audience. You want me to name a smart one. Office Space. A non-comedy. Se7en. Fight Club too to some extent, but SOMEHOW people still get big heads seeing that movie, but it really doesn't try to be "cool" for the sake of being cool. In waking life, all the discussions are things i thought of at 12 years old while taking shits. The art is cool, but adds nothing to the plot. It is a movie completely made to say things we all have thought of in a way that we all will think we were on to something. It's nothing original and certainly nothing as deep as it would advertise itself as being. Get that? It "looks" deep and it acts deep and suckers will think they are deep for getting the plot, but it's not deep and everyone has already been over it a thousand times. "But it brings up an interesting topic that is not explored too often "--- my ass it does.
it's not done in movies a lot because fucking everyone talks about it all the time in real life.
The matrix pulls the same stunt. "Lets see what life would be like in a computer" is just like a dream. We all have had realistic dreams and got the VERY ORIGINAL idea that we might be living a dream. So when morpheus asks neo if he has ever had a dream so real he didn't know the difference... FUCKING OF COURSE HE AND EVERYONE IN THE AUDIENCE HAS. If the audience had never had realistic dreams they wouldn't get the movie. and EVERYONE gets the matrix.
as for "at times it seems like an introductory Philosophy class", i take it you've never actually taken an intro phil class. My first or second day of class in phil 101 we disproved the whole idea of waking life.

[soundtest]

Fight Club... but it really doesn't try to be "cool" for the sake of being cool

Yes it does.

It is a movie completely made to say things we all have thought of in a way that we all will think we were on to something. It's nothing original and certainly nothing as deep as it would advertise itself as being. Get that? It "looks" deep and it acts deep and suckers will think they are deep for getting the plot, but it's not deep and everyone has already been over it a thousand times.

So is your problem with the audience?

My first or second day of class in phil 101 we disproved the whole idea of waking life.

Disproved what? Isn't this movie simply a dream?

[wreckreation]

My problem isn't with the audience. Well, i do have a problem witht eh audience, but that is another story. I just HATE when movies intentionally try to beef up the audiences ego by doing some sorta smart bullshit that everyone of course will get but doing it in a way where everyone thinks they are brilliant. Fight club in it's atmosphere KINDA does it, but it never hatches some complex plan that is difficult to keep up with. It simply changes the character context as it entertains. It was all taken from the book and the book certainly DOES NOT make you feel smart. In this instance audiences never seem to get it and they all wanna be space monkies even though the whole movie is saying that that is a stupid idea. The Matrix is like all the space monkey bullshit without ever saying you should think for yourself. Everyone says "OHH ACTION" "OHHH PHILOSOPHY" and falls in love. But yeah, the matrix is 1st and foremost an action flick, but the phil just tries to cover that fact up. Waking life is the same scam, but no action. Just out of place art to make an art house film for idiots.

[O71394658]

I've never seen it, but I'll try to pick it up this weekend.

[O71394658]

Alright, I saw it. Kind of interesting, yet mildly boring at the same time. :/ Partly because it was very "philosophy class-ish" and partly because I never have very lucid dreams like that...

[Rongi]

Originally Posted by wreckreation

lol you like movies that make you feel smart. Thats pathetic. You like music that isn't mainstream just so you can feel hip. All your linkin park shit just makes me grin since you babbled the whole time about how you "just don't like them" yet OBVIOUSLY have some sort of a stigma against them. You don't like them but you haven't the musical knowledge to formulate any reason as to why. So, like the fuckign pathetic loser you are you just go along with the status quo in backing what's simply not on mtv. We can talk music, we can talk movies. We can talk abotu whatever you want and you're just gonna come out like a bitchy little kid. The best part of all is that i am PAID on my musical know how in what is popular along with technical skill.

Wreck, I don't want to talk to you because you are seriously fucking boring.

[wreckreation]

"mommy says don't talk to bullies."

[Miss Modular]

I enjoy "art" films, but I'm going to have to agree with Wreck. There were a couple of episodes that stood out, and the rotoscoping was cool, but this movie a bore for the most part.

In a current screenplay, I have two people discussing the future of art in a car ride. Hope I don't bore people.

[Anti-Xocial]

I found the movie to be complelling for its imaginative, philosophical and creative sides. I didn't feel as though it patronized my sense of knowledge just because it brought up some matters that I have given some thought to in the past.

As i mentioned earlier I found it to be "thought-provoking" that was not to say that the issues that were brought up were new but more how-and-who-said-what within the context (and this movie just had a great context!

[Vibecrewangel]

I was taking a class at Stanford on lucid dreaming taught by Dr. La-berge who has written several books on the subject. I've always had lucid dreams and wanted to know why some people just have them and some never do. Anyway.... My boyfriend rents this movie for me to see at around the same time 'cause it bothered him and he wanted my take on it. About halfway through the movie.....the light switch scene actually....I realize I am listening to complete exerpts from Dr. La-berge's book that we are using as a textbook. I grab the book find the section and hand it off to my now very confused boyfriend. He reads and then looks at me and says "huh, I thought this movie was about the main character realizing he was dead."
My poor boyfriend......everything is about death.....he just can't see any other view someone else points it out.

Anyway...Wreck....you wanna know what is really frustrating.....realizing that you may have thought all those things up as a kid but the majority of people haven't. Or did, but don't make the concious connections now. It seems real obvious to you, just like it does to me, but sad as it is...for most people this is a new line of concious thought.
I realized a long time ago that what I thought was obvious is beyond most people. Hell, I've pissed off friends because they didn't get they way I saw the world and they thought I was a freak. Then they take a psych class later and come back to me all amazed that the "uneducated" person thinks at a "higher level" than most people. Then I have to play 20 questions about where I learned it. Try telling people you have always just thought that way and they stare at you like a farking nut case. "Well what have you read?" "Where did you learn it?" "Who taught you?" I used to get all bitter and pissy then I realized that most people are so used to being taught they don't know how to think. Now I'm just kinda sad.

EDIT: And I thought the movie was fairly dull....but then...I'd sat through the lectures already.

[O71394658]

Pretentious attitudes suck.

I hate self-righteous indignation.

[miss emma]

Originally Posted by Vibecrewangel

Anyway...Wreck....you wanna know what is really frustrating.....realizing that you may have thought all those things up as a kid but the majority of people haven't. Or did, but don't make the concious connections now. It seems real obvious to you, just like it does to me, but sad as it is...for most people this is a new line of concious thought.

and there-in lies the irony. these aren't far-fetched ideas here. the idea that we could either be dreaming or in waking reality and we would never know...well. what kid doesn't think that?

which, i suspect, was wreck's point in the first place. it is a slightly (slightly!) difficult idea to get your head around, but it has occured to most people. thus the movie makes people feel smart. Waking Life could have, even, marketed itself better by not being available at Blockbuster. then we could all feel superior that the Diet Coke-heads just don't get it, man.