Waking Life by Richard Linklater

Finally, an existential cartoon! I heard about this film in two very different places. One was some trashy t.v. show with snippets about Hollywood, and the other was in a newsletter for the website Electric Dreams, a dreaming resource. So even though heading out to a cinema is a heroic feat these days, what with snow and child care and all, I managed to drag my mother out on the bus to check it out. We were like girls skipping off from school with our popcorn in our hands, domestic chaos forgotten. Welcome to our interior world.

Lots of food for thought in the numerous philosophical dialogues presented here. It really does feel like a sneak peek into someone's early-in-the-night dream. We drift along meeting one character after another, addressing one question after another. And the imagery follows,line drawings that shift and shape and poke gentle fun at the various thinkers, good for a snicker or two.

What inspired me the most about this film is the courage and conviction of the director. This is the kind of project that the entire universe would discourage one from making for a million capitalist principles, and he just ignored all of that and went ahead. And so we are lucky enough to have this little peephole into his vision, his adventures in dreamtime (or near death, as the thin thread of plot implies). It's all a little less personal and symbolic than my own dreamsharing experiments, but it's done on a grand scale, very compelling. Seek it out and watch it.

www.wakinglifemovie.com

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