DREAM WHIRL.(filmmaker Richard Linklater's Waking Life)

NOT UNLIKE ONE OF HIS INTELLIGENT, loquacious characters, Richard Linklater wears his artistry lightly. So lightly, in fact, that he's often confused with the slackers who lent his first film its name. But Waking Life--his latest feature, which opens in October--proves he is something more: a supremely attentive craftsman with a feel for the endless searching that lies at the heart of every well-examined life.

Like a lot of other filmmakers, Linklater has recently gone digital, with not one but two new projects. Tape (opening in November) is a nervy little chamber piece made on a ...