If there's one thing that Richard Linklater isn't short of these days it's praise and adulation. His ambitious movie Boyhood - filmed over the course of 12 years showing its central characters as they grow - picked up a raft of awards and was considered one of the best films of 2014 by critics and audiences alike. The same can't be said for Waking Life, a film which was also ambitious in its own way, both in the groundbreaking use of fluid rotoscoped visuals and the attempt to delve into philosophical themes to a degree rarely seen in cinema. It's a dialogue-heavy and often cerebral experience featuring a succession of conversations about the nature of the universe, consciousness and dreaming, which challenges and intrigues in equal measure. Perhaps it is its cerebral pretentions which have led Waking Life to be so underrated - many people are put off by having to think when watching movies, preferring instead to be entertained. Still, it deserved far more than its limited release and subsequent poor box office takings, and the real shame is that studios will be put off from attempting something as brave and ambitious.
