Rent Waking Life on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Richard Linklater
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Wiley Wiggins, Adam Goldberg, Nicky Katt, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.
Verdict
It's not a movie with a traditional plot, and that's probably going to dissuade a lot of people, but if you're interested in exploring reality, philosophy, and conscience this is a fun investigation. What does it mean to be awake? What is existence? Is our reality someone's fleeting dream?
It depends.
Review
It's a surreal animated movie. A guy hitches a ride from a man that has a boat for a car. He talks about how the car is an extension of him, going with the flow. The protagonist is dropped off at a random destination, a place that will dictate the rest of his life.
The protagonist appears in several different situations, like he's waking up. In various conversations people talk about theories of philosophy and existentialism. One guy talks about chaos is his dissatisfaction with the world before he sets himself on fire. Nobody reacts. Did it happen or is it a statement on the worlds self absorbance?
Jesse and Celine from Before Sunrise discuss what's real and what exists in the mind. A dream second is much longer than a waking second. Could what we perceive as life be just an instant and someone else's dream? Our entire life could be a dying person's dream. Jess pivots to collective conscious. What one person knows is out there forever. What if you can tap into that knowledge base?
Of course this considers freedom versus free will. Are we constrained by God or physical laws?
Then we get this surreal moment when a guy tells a bartender a story. It ends with him producing the pistol from the story and wondering if it works. The bartender tells him to pull the trigger, and the guy shoots the bartender who falls to the ground, gets up, and shoots the guy back. It seems like a dream. All of this movie seems like a dream.
Alex Jones, yes that Alex Jones, appears in a car ranting over a PA system. Linklater stated Jones was cast because he was so amusing. He never imagined Jones would ever be taken seriously or widely recognized.
How do you know you're in a dream? A clue is that you can't read text nor can you adjust the light level. The protagonist frequently experiences both of those phenomenons. Whenever he tries to determine if he's in a dream, he usually is. You could argue based on the movie's logic that he's accessing the collective conscious to explore theories of life, freedom, and existence.
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