The film has an average score of 82/100 ("universal acclaim") on review aggregator Metacritic, based on 31 reviews. Based on 145 reviews compiled by Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of the critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 7.44/10. The website's critical consensus reads: ""Waking Life"s inventive animated aesthetic adds a distinctive visual component to a film that could easily have rested on its smart screenplay and talented ensemble cast." Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four stars out of four, describing it as "a cold shower of bracing, clarifying ideas". Ebert later included the film on his list of "Great Movies". Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" awarded the film an "A" rating, calling it "a work of cinematic art in which form and structure pursue the logic-defying (parallel) subjects of dreaming and moviegoing," while Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" wrote it was "so verbally dexterous and visually innovative that you can't absorb it unless you have all your wits about you". Dave Kehr of "The New York Times" found the film to be "lovely, fluid, funny" and stated that it "never feels heavy or over-ambitious".