Waking Life
Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: October 19, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
The film is truly special, truly different -- a wondrous talky roundelay about and for people who love life. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
An amazing thing -- a work of cinematic art in which form and structure pursues the logic-defying (parallel) subjects of dreaming and moviegoing. Read full review
100
The New YorkerDavid Denby
For the battered American independent cinema, Linklater's movie is the highest form of life seen in the last couple of years. [12 Nov 2001, p. 138]
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
An astounding, one-of-a-kind movie. Read full review
100
Film ThreatChris Barsanti
If there is justice in this world, this is the movie that will get people talking again about the excitement of film. Read full review
100
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
While much of the film is as scattershot as life itself, there are a few superb sequences involving lucid dreaming that really get down to business. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I have seen Waking Life three times now. I want to see it again -- not to master it, or even to remember it better, -- but simply to experience all of these ideas, all of this passion, the very act of trying to figure things out. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A smart cartoon about the life of the mind. It's about the fuzzy border between dreaming and living. It's thoughtful, provocative, liberating and fun. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Not only does this film make you think, it makes you want to think. Few films -- few works of art of any stripe -- can claim that. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineFrank Lovece
A collection of interconnected vignettes shot as live-action digital video footage which is then 'fed into' computer animation software, Linklater's latest film is an audacious, ambitious undertaking. There's a surreal yet consistent logic to it, which is the film's biggest accomplishment. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Intriguing, arresting, delightfully refusing to be pigeonholed. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A beautiful display of celluloid bungee-jumping. Read full review
100
CineVueAdam Lowes
Perhaps given the ostensibly bookish subject matter, Waking Life has seldom been acknowledged as a legitimate innovator of the medium. Read full review
90
The New York TimesStephen Holden
So verbally dexterous and visually innovative that you can't absorb it unless you have all your wits about you. And even then, you may want to see it again to enjoy its subtle humor and warm humanity. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
One of the most inspired cases of the medium embodying the message ever captured on celluloid. Read full review
90
Rolling StonePeter Travers
That Linklater pulls off the innovative feat with hypnotic assurance is nothing short of amazing. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's the perfect marriage of music and animated movement. But even when there's no music playing in Waking Life, the movie's lyricism is sustained by the way it looks and feels. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Exciting and innovative feature. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A smart, sensuous and sensory mind trip that caroms around a universe of thought. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Linklater's ravishing new movie represents a bold leap into the possibilities of technology. Read full review
80
Mr. ShowbizMichael Atkinson
Like being jacked directly into Linklater's alpha waves, and the experience is bracingly new to movies.
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
The effect is dazzlingly beautiful and surreal. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
The pictures are gorgeous, and the words, well, if you listen hard enough, the words say exactly what one needs to hear: that is, to wake up and live. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A breakthrough animated film -- a trippy cross between "Yellow Submarine" and "My Dinner With Andre" that will leave some audience members struggling to stay awake and others reaching for a toke. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Few American filmmakers put more faith in the ability of words to stimulate mind and heart. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Might have been unbearable if Linklater hadn't filled it with so much self-deprecating humor, undercutting the pretentiousness whenever it threatens to become too thick. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Audiences looking for something fresh and different, not to mention a head trip, will find it in Waking Life. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Individual artists were assigned their own characters and given free rein -- characters and locations shift on a dime from naturalistic to baroque -- with the result that the movie's formal imagination surpasses and redeems the banal tedium of some of the dialogue. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
I'd like to think it's all a joke, that far from a dream this is actually Linklater's idea of a nightmare. Read full review
60
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's a cult movie in search of a cult. It'll probably find one. It certainly looks and feels like no other movie ever made. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Leaves an impression, while its specifics fade almost immediately. Read full review
40
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Waking Life doesn't leave you in a dream, specifically the dream of Linklater's previous films, so much as it traps you in an endless bull session. Read full review
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