My wife showed me Waking Life way back when we first started dating (around 2006 or so). She thought it was the best film ever. Her previous boyfriend and all her other college friends were liberal arts majors, so it was championed in their circle as a crowning achievement of film entertainment, possibly the greatest film ever made.

I, on the other hand, thought it was the most pretentious piece of artsy garbage I'd ever seen. And I was a huge fan of philosophy and human psychology in those days. I was so disappointed in that film and its poor attempt to convey its themes.

I felt like the philosophical discussions were all unimaginative topics, presented to the audience as if they were deep revelations. But there was no deeper message, no inspiring new thoughts to convey. Just a bunch of common philosophical themes that we've seen explored in dozens of other films. But this one refused to commit to an actual understanding of those themes, instead leaving them vague and open-ended, so you can project your own meanings on them instead of the creator doing actual work or showing any knowledge or understanding.

Heck, it didn't even have a decent flow to the story. There wasn't really a plot, just a bunch of disjointed thoughts that the creator wanted to say without knowing how to properly convey it on screen. There weren't even decent transitions between topics, and the main character just sort of faded out of the story as it got lost in its tunnel of thought-dumping on the viewer. I absolutely hated that film.

I last watched it nearly 2 decades ago. I've wanted to rewatch it again and see if my feelings about it still hold up. My wife has rewatched it since, and she now agrees with me that it's a pretty pretentious piece of work. Maybe we should both check it out again and reevaluate.

Anyone here trying to defend Jones at any part of his life should listen to knowledge fight. He’s always been a fraud and idiot.

I love Linklater, but Waking Life is his worst movie in my humble opinion. It was almost impossible to get through for me. The only relief in that film is that Jesse and Céline got a cameo.

The Before Trilogy is his superior work. I'm still upset he didn't make a fourth movie in 2022, but I get it. A trilogy is more marketable than a quadrilogy or more.

I’m lucky enough to have a copy of this film on Blu-ray. It’s insanely rare. I got to see it all the way back in 2007 and it still seems almost no one has heard of it. It has changed my life more than any other film I’ve seen.

i know it isn't easy upvoting alex jones content, so thank you for your service in educating people about what a true charlatan he is.

edit - this speech hit me so hard that i will never forget it. and to think now that it was HIS speech? fuck.