(These are the dreams of our lives...)
CAST: Voices and animated images of Wiley Wiggins, Bill Wise, Erik Grostic, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Jeannine Attaway, Sara Nelson, Leigh Mahoney, J.C. Shakespeare.
DIRECTOR: Richard Linklater
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and decidedly adult, existential cartoons straight ahead…
Ages and ages and ages ago, when I was still living in Southeast Asia and getting ready to become a certified scuba diver, I remember my dive instructor telling me, “There’s no way a diver can adequately describe to a non-diver what goes on down there.” And I remember thinking: “Bullshit. You must have a very limited vocabulary, then.” That was before I took my first dive into the waters of the South China Sea.
When I surfaced from that initial dive, I knew two things for certain: (1) I would be diving for the rest of my natural life; and (2) my dive instructor was absolutely correct: there is no way a diver can adequately describe to a non-diver what goes on under the sea. Even if he or she has a vocabulary that rivals the Webster Dictionary. Even if he or she drew them a picture of the fishies and coral. Even photographs do not do justice to the underwater world. Some experiences, such as scuba diving, simply need to be experienced first-hand.
The surreal, hypnotic, enigmatic, provocative, challenging, and ultimately rewarding film WAKING LIFE is one of those experiences. An animated “story” following the wanderings of an unnamed young man (voice of Wiley Wiggins) as he wanders around in a dream state, encountering stranger after stranger who opine eloquently and passionately on a variety of subjects including existentialism, reincarnation, memory, morality, destiny, dreams, reality, revenge, forgiveness, regret, love, faith, etc. In essence, WAKING LIFE is about the meaning of life. Told through one thoroughly trippy and unpredictable narrative.
I could break down all of Unnamed Hero’s encounters with the colorful - literally and figuratively - people around him. I could give you a Cliff’s Notes version of each of these conversations. I could do that - but I’m not going to. See, that would be too much like describing my first kiss to someone who’s never been kissed. Like describing what I love about someone whom you’ve never even met. Or describing to a blind person how the sun looks when rising between the two peaks of Mt. Vesuvius. Or explaining why the way someone’s eyes crinkle when he smiles can have the same euphoric effect on you as riding your mountain bike down a steep hill. Like me trying to get a non-diver to understand just how beautiful it is under the sea...
How would I get you to experience any of that? I can’t. You just have to know it, see it, feel it for yourself. Just like WAKING LIFE. Experience it for yourself.
BUT, EVEN MORE SERIOUSLY: This film was recommended to me by Clark Kent, a friend in his mid-20’s who’s finding his way through the world as a young adult. It’s entirely fitting, since I view WAKING LIFE as a metaphor for a young man who’s making his own way through the world - and encountering various people with different viewpoints, ideas, and opinions which they don’t hesitate to share with him. Which ideas, viewpoints, and opinions our Unnamed Hero chooses to discard, and which ones he chooses to integrate into this mind and heart, will ultimately shape the man that he becomes. Just like Clark.
Richard Linklater directed WAKING LIFE, and it is just as provocative and compelling as the rest of his oeuvre: BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE SUNSET, DAZED AND CONFUSED, and SLACKER. It’s not a film for everyone. A friend that I saw it with didn’t like it at all. He didn’t see the value in it that Clark and I and many, many others saw. And that’s fine. WAKING LIFE will not speak to everyone. But those it speaks to will find it hard to forget.
And that’s all I will say. While WAKING LIFE is a film that is alive with words, when it comes to singing its praises, sometimes words just get in the way. As I said before, experience it for yourselves.
