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'''''Waking Life''''' is a 2001 [[Rotoscoping|semi-animated]] film by [[Richard Linklater]]. The plot follows a young man walking through a lucid dream where he observes and enters into dialogue about lofty philosophical concepts and theories. The film itself was initially shot on digital video, and then drawn over by a team of animators. The resulting look is fairly unique, and manages to evoke dream-like imagery on a shoestring budget.
Despite lacking a traditional plot, visuals, or even trained actors, the film won a great deal of praise for its innovation and unique look. The film won the Best Feature Grand Prize at the 2002 [[Ottawa International Animation Festival]], and [[Roger Ebert]] would add it to his list of Great Movies in 2009.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Arc Words]]: "Dream is destiny."▼
* [[All Just a Dream]]: Inverted. It's the point of the plot, not a plot point.
** Played with by Speed Levitch:
{{quote|
▲* [[Arc Words]]: "Dream is destiny."
* [[Author Appeal]]: Richard Linklater is very passionate about philosophy. He's also admitted that his lucid dreaming played a part in the writing.
* [[Call Back]]: When the dream transforms into a nightmare, several characters reappear as different characters.
* [[The Cameo]]: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play their characters from ''[[Before Sunrise]]'' and ''[[Before Sunset]]'' in one scene, also written and directed by Linklater.▼
** As mentioned above, Alex Jones, the fringe political radio host, basically plays himself for one scene.▼
** Two [[Creator Cameo|Creator Cameos]]; Linklater is the other hitcher on the boatship at the beginning and the pinball player that speaks with the main character near the end.▼
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: The old man on the telephone pole. Deconstructed by a group of characters who muse they're no better than the old man:
{{quote|
'''Man #2:''' No worse than us. He's all action, no theory. We'll all theory, no action. }}
* [[Contemplate Our Navels]]: Pretty much the whole point.
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* [[Creepy Monotone]]: "I remember where I came from and how I became a human. Why I hung around. And now my final departure is scheduled. This way out. Escaping velocity. Not just eternity, but infinity."
* {{spoiler|[[Dead All Along]]}}: One interpretation, but by no means the only one. The Dreamer frets about it near the end, telling his fears to [[Creator Cameo|the pinball playing man.]]
{{quote|
* [[Deranged Animation]]: Several scenes specifically; arguably the film's style as a whole.
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: When The Dreamer [[Dream Within a Dream|wakes up from a dream to find himself in another dream]] once too often, he despairs and {{spoiler|starts to think he's already dead.}}
* [[Dream Within a Dream]]: The entire film.
* [[Empathic Environment]]: As The Dreamer grows depressed, and the subject starts to broach the subject of {{spoiler|death}}, the world similarly becomes darker and more
* [[Follow the Leader]]: Both this and ''[[Slacker]]'' are heavily inspired by Louis Malle's ''My Dinner With Andre''.
* [[Gainax Ending]]
* [[Lucid Dreams]]: The film's plot are a series of loosely related dream sequences, were the Dreamer encounters a myriad of interesting people, who laid out information of varying degrees of profundity.
** It even explores both psychological concepts as well as the concept of lucid dreaming.
* [[Mind Screw]]: Much of the film, though one scene in particular is notable. The protagonist is discussing a woman's plan for a "real-life" soap opera when he realizes he's dreaming again. He then asks her what it's like being a dream, inflicting this on the woman (her dialogue becomes ''much'' less composed). She still challenges The Dreamer:
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** Then, when he says that he'd been passive (in the first half of the movie), just listening to other characters orate:
{{quote|
* [[No Name Given]]: Nobody in the film has a name. The credits have to use pictures of the characters for identifying the actors. It's even a minor plot point that the main character can't remember his name ([[Truth in Television|which is also pretty hard to do in your real dreams]]).
** [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]]: The main character is called "The Dreamer".
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** Also, ''Waking Life'' itself to his first film, ''Slacker''. Both go from character to character, discussing whatever's on their mind. ''Waking Life'' has slightly more plot, though.
* [[Stealth Parody]]: Possibly used against [[Alex Jones]]. While he is yelling one of his monologues over a car loudspeaker, the animation slowly increases his skin hue to brighter, darker shades of red. This could just be a simple exaggeration used in many pieces of animation, or a reference to the imprisoned psychopath who is shown in the same way earlier in the movie.
▲* [[The Cameo]]: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy play their characters from ''[[Before Sunrise]]'' and ''[[Before Sunset]]'' in one scene, also written and directed by Linklater.
▲** As mentioned above, Alex Jones, the fringe political radio host, basically plays himself for one scene.
▲** Two [[Creator Cameo|Creator Cameos]]; Linklater is the other hitcher on the boatship at the beginning and the pinball player that speaks with the main character near the end.
* [[The Wonka]]: Speed Levitch, and he's like that in [[Real Life]].
{{reflist}}
{{OIAF Grand Prize Winners}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]
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