before a few of the more independent films i’ve seen lately, i’ve caught a trailer for this strange, dreamy, animated-but-not-cartoon movie called waking life. it looked really interesting and i wanted to check it out pretty badly.

well, it came out today in limited release (only one theatre in the whole los angeles area, as far as i know), and my roommate and i went to see it. i wasn’t sure how the story was going to work based on the trailer, so i wasn’t sure what to expect besides something new and cool. now i’m going to try to tell you what i ended up getting in my little review for waking life:

the first and most accurate thing i can tell you about this movie would be a jaw-dropped and eyes-widened “wow”. this could very well be the best movie i’ve seen in over a year. maybe that’s not saying much, and i know that’s not saying enough, but none of the adjectives i know quite reach the level of enthusiasm i have for this film right after seeing it. i can say, though, that this movie did everything for me i could have wanted a film to do. it’s beautiful (and oddly but wonderfully animated, so that it’s not just fun to watch, it’s simply fun to be looking at), it’s inspiring, it’s thought-provoking, it’s funny, it’s moving, it has a bit of mystery about it, it’s incredibly smart, it’s well-written (and well-read, judging by the abundant references) . . . it’s just amazing. i can’t say enough about this movie. nor can i tell you enough to do whatever you must to get a chance to see this movie. visit your friend in the city as an excuse to find a theater that’s showing it. drive the extra hour. 9 dollars for this film, to me, was nothing. i would have paid twenty.

i’m going to stop raving so i don’t scare you off, but i just had to recommend this so that the joy of this film may reach as many as possible. maybe then, more things this perfect will be made.

oh, and as a bonus — as if i wasn’t satisfied enough with the experience — there were free mini-posters and six free promotional postcards with movie scenes on them to take home as souveneirs. i got all six cards and two posters (an extra for roommate mike who had missed them), so now i have to put them up as a shrine.

and at the moment i’m sitting here, writing this, in a weird sort of post-movie contentment that only happens once in a great while, not sure what to do with myself and this positive energy. maybe i’ll just listen to good music and reflect. if i were you, i’d check out that trailer i linked above, and hunt down this movie if you can.

how long until it makes dvd, do you think?