Waking Life

Last night, I watched an interesting movie called "Waking Life." It is written and directed by Richard Linklater, the same wonderful man who brought us "Dazed and Confused" and the loveable mainstream hit "School of Rock." Using animation and live action footage together makes this one of the most unique films I've even seen. However, it is not a movie that everyone would enjoy, taking a special kind of personality to appreciate. Even those people who fall into this category must be in the correct frame of mind to truly enjoy the film.

I don't mean to say this to encourage anyone away from the film. If you are ready and willing, the movie will take you to intellectual and visual heights. But, if you're not there, you will be bored out of your mind for the 99 minutes running time.

Much in the way that "Vanilla Sky" dealt with the question of reality versus the dream life, this movie tackles these subjects with the addition of philosophical theories that question the existence of everything ranging from God to life itself. While exploring the confusion that is wrapped up in these complex ideas, the audience member views the film as a cartoon with highly exaggerated yet realistic images. Wiley Wiggins, the young freshman taken in with the cool seniors from "Dazed and Confused," portrays the main character, whose dreams make up the film. Wiggins is perfect in this role with a subdued performance that allows the words and visual aspect of the film to take control, rather than rely on the charcter and the performance of the character. Wiggins reaches a climax in the movie when he realizes he is dreaming and can't escape, and desperately tries to figure out what to do next.

On the whole, I enjoyed the movie because of the visual look. I could live without the non-stop talking and philosophising that is usually accompanied in movies like this. I found "Waking Life" to be a great piece of work for Linklater, and thought the cameo's of actors and characters from other Linklater films added to the likability of the movie. Despite the fact that I own this DVD, I feel certain that I will not watch it frequently, but every now and then when I feel like tripping in the non-literal sense of the term.

Wow, has it been a while

It feels like it has been years since I've been able to write on my blog. It always amazes me how time flies when you do nothing. Actually, I haven't been doing nothing. I've been quite busy. In fact, this last week alone, I went to Tulsa three times, all for different reasons. Reason No. 1: Take Molly, Madison, and Austin to Rooney concert at Cain's Ballroom. Dance all night and meet band afterward. (Great picture taken of Molly with Ned and Taylor from the band.) Reason No. 2: Do some "Day After Thanksgiving Day" shopping. Buy all Christmas presents for people on list except for, of course, the friend who is with me at the time (Steph). Come home and try and stay up as late as possible, but pass out at 8:30 due to only receiving 30 minutes of sleep the night before. Reason No. 3: See "Pride & Prejudice" at AMC Theater in Tulsa. Love the movie, especially sexy Mr. Darcy played by Matthew MacFadyen (sorry Austin, know you don't like to hear me refer to men as "sexy"). Also do some more shopping and buy really neat trunk for pool house.

Even though I have been busy, it seems like I'm having a really hard time dealing with school. I am defintely going through an end-of-the-semester slump right now. I find it extremely difficult to go to class. It's much easier to go to work, even though work always lasts longer than class does. I dropped one of my classes today. It's okay, though, because I still have a total of 12 hours for the semester, keeping me at full-time status. I realized that I didn't really need the class, and since I had missed more classes than I would presently like to admit, I felt it best just to let it go. When I informed some of the newspaper staff today, they laughed at me and said that I had to be the first person ever to drop a blow-off class.

Austin is such a good studier. He makes me jealous. I wish that I could show that much dedication to my schoolwork. However, ever since my "incident" at TU, I just don't care that much. Sure, I want to get a degree and probably will end up being in school for the rest of my life, but I don't have the desire I once did to conquer the world through my education. I still value it as something inexplicably important, but I just don't have the burning desire to learn everything placed in front of me like I did when I was in high school. Maybe this is because I always wanted to be challenged in high school, probably because there really wasn't a lot of great opportunity for this. When I finally was challenged in college (at TU), I didn't really want what I thought I'd wanted for so many years because that's all that was layed out for me. Now, I'm totally confused by all of this and am left somewhere in the middle, not knowing if I need to challenge myself to feel like I'm doing something worthwhile with my mind or just relax and let the time come when I will be adequately challenged but not challenged.

Anyway, I really didn't mean to vent about that. I'm trying to finish up all my stuff on the computer here at work so that I can go home and mope around the house with my sick sister. She caught the sinus infection that my mother had. Now, I'm nervous that I will catch it just in time for finals week (blah!). Hope to publish some reviews sometime soon. Look for the upcoming reviews on "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Rent," "Walk the Line," "Pride and Prejudice," and any other movie I manage to see between now and then.