“It’s about life and how you perceive it,” says Wiggins (Dazed and Confused), “and stuff you don’t generally want to get into a discussion about when you’re waiting for an elevator.” In this animated head trip by director Linklater (SubUrbia, Before Sunrise), a latter-day slacker (Wiggins) tries to figure out if he is awake or asleep as he wanders from one conversation to another, philosophizing with more than 60 characters, some of whom hail from Linklater’s previous movies. The real news here, though, is the ground-breaking animation: Actors were shot with a handheld camera, the images were loaded onto computers, and a team of some 30 artists set to work “painting” over the frames, creating a heightened reality in which sidewalks and facial expressions take on a fluid, almost psychedelic movement. “I was worried that once it became animated, nuances might get lost,” Wiggins says. “But it was the opposite; the artists actually amplified life.”
Surreality Check: “I love the idea that these animated characters are really passionate about life,” Linklater says. “More so than some real people I know.”
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Waking Life
Starring: Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and many more
Directed by: Richard Linklater
(Fox Searchlight, October 19)
Rated PG-13
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Copyright © 2008 Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.