MovieChat Forums > Waking Life (2002) Discussion > I hate to use this word...

I hate to use this word...

posted 15 years ago by generouspalmstroke
16 replies | jump to latest

Many of the movies I like get called by others pretentious, and I hate that word for describing a movie and have never seen the sense in calling a movie that until now. Everything in this movie was so pretentious.

Admittedly there were a few cool scenes, but to me it was mostly a series of unrelated event followed by another unrelated event which flexed so hard to sound profound that in the end its pseudo-intellectual, convoluted drivel confounded yourself mind to the point where you felt as if you HAD to like it; even if you only connected with one segment that alone was enough to have this respect for like for it.

I mean there were certain topics brought up by the characters that were so contrived and "unique" that it made me roll my eyes with annoyance.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] thematrixhasyou1 14 years ago

If the ideas are pretty self evident how does that indicate that the film isn't that pretentious

[–] COBRARocky 14 years ago

You act like being pretentious is a bad thing

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] B-J-C 14 years ago

Well said gogo! I couldn't have said it better myself. Except, I don't watch films to learn from them, unless they're documentaries, in which case I take them with a pinch of salt. I mainly watch films to be entertained. Waking Life entertained me because it always gave me something to think about.

[–] Madhaxman 14 years ago

I always felt that something is pretentious if it insist on a depth or quality it doesn't have.

And to be honest, pieces of art can't be pretentious. They either have depth or not. An artist can be (and often is) pretentious.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] eelsman1993 14 years ago

Okay, so taking into account the fact that every film ever made is pretentious, I guess we can only judge films in the capacity they choose to display their pretentious nature.

A film like Pulp Fiction hides its pretentious nature very well.

A film like Waking Life doesn't.

If you're watching a film and you're aware of it screaming 'LOOK AT ME. LOOK AT HOW INTELLIGENT AND PHILOSOPHICAL I AM BEING', then it is not a good film. It is pretentious and it wants everyone to know it.

You act as if being pretentious is a thing that doesn't vary according to how thickly it's laid onto a film, which isn't true. Some films are just more pretentious than others, and this is one of them.

Deal with it.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] creaturefeeture 14 years ago

Ugh.
My Philosophy 101 class was so pretentious.

[–] FilippiliF 13 years ago

As a matter of fact, quite a lot of the "pseudo-intellectual, convoluted drivel" is spoken by real university professors and philosophers. So yeah, I don't know if the label pseudo-intellectual can be applied in this case...

[–] Fishelakh-In-Vaser 13 years ago

As a matter of fact, quite a lot of the "pseudo-intellectual, convoluted drivel" is spoken by real university professors and philosophers. So yeah, I don't know if the label pseudo-intellectual can be applied in this case...

Apparently real university professors and philosophers are pseudo-intellectuals now. Makes me wonder who the real intellectuals are though.

Like a flame burning away the darkness,
Life is flesh on bone convulsing above the ground.

[–] a_bun_dance 13 years ago

I completely agree. I felt the constant name dropping of philosophers and various other "intellectuals" insaaanely annoying. I understand it's reference, but Jesus Christ..

Yes, the subject matter was interesting. Some of the ideas were thought provoking. But the execution was way off. The way the ideas are presented to the audience leaves minimal room for the viewer to chew on the theories and interact with the film itself. It's simply cut and dry, thrown at you, and there's little chance of trying to make connections on your own. It was insanely one-sided.

If your intention was to shoot an arrow through my heart...Bullseye!

[–] MoviemanCin 10 years ago

I agree, generouspalmstroke. Nothing but boring, pretentious psychobabble. Bad and BORING.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, or doesn't.

[–] MoviemanCin 10 years ago

PS Did I mention that I hated this film?

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, or doesn't.

[–] bluekadife 9 years ago

I also hate people who call movies pretentious but I guess if I had to use the word for a film this could be it. There is no general story arc, it is just a collection of bunch of name dropping unrealistic philoshophical dialogue. It even says in the movie how a movie is not supposed to be about story telling and I might be ok with that. But I just dont understand why this isn't published as a documentary on existensial philosophy or lucid dreaming or whatever. I still enjoyed it since some parts of it were quite interesting but I guess I still feel like you can't just add up unrelated, unnatural dialogue with no clear beginning and end and call it a movie. It seemed to me that the dialogues didn't really affect the main character's life so what's the point of having a main character at all?