Review of Waking Life

I will have to obtain a copy of this film because I'm sure I'll need to view it ten times to get the maximum out of it. In two hours, it deals with every philosophical and metaphysical idea I can think of, off the top of my head. In a way, it reminded me of My Dinner With Andre because Andre's stories are so far out there that we process them subconsciously as dream stories, until Wally wakes us up.

In addition to the incredibly thoughtful and clever script, the acting totally knocks me out. I find it impossible to accept that these are not real people recorded having real conversations. There is a lot of subtle humor and irony woven into the film, like first the "boat captain" denying he had met the main character before, with the main character getting frustrated in his low-key way, and then later the main character denying he had seen the amorous girl before, when WE certainly can't forget that intense but wordless encounter.

Among all the literary and quotation references peppered throughout the film, I was surprised the famous Poe poem, Dream Within a Dream, received no mention. After all, the umbrella theme of the film is an attempt to answer Poe's question.

I shall now seek out all the rest of Linklater's films.