Reviews

I was way too young to see Before Sunrise when it was originally released in 1995, but I rented it about a year ago and was blown away by it, bought it and proceeded to get my friends obsessed with it. So when I heard that Richard Linklater was making a follow-up to it, I was extremely excited and anxious (and I didn't even have to wait for 10 years between movies!). As much as I liked Before Sunrise, I think I like Before Sunset even more...the characters are so real-life it's almost scary and Delpy, Hawke and Linklater deserved their Oscar nomination for best screenplay, the dialog was so natural and realistic it didn't even seem scripted (and that's a huge compliment). The acting was phenomenal, for a film, shot in real time, involving only 2 characters walking through Paris talking about nothing and everything it held my attention and I think that was due in large part to Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, who I forgot were acting and almost believed were really their characters. This movie isn't flashy or loud or anything like that, it doesn't try to convey some huge philosophical message, it's just two people who met each other once and are now trying to make up for all the things in their lives they couldn't do with each other...so normal and sad and hopeful. If you enjoy dialog driven, character based films this movie comes highly recommended...definitely 10 out of 10.

I too saw this film at the Sundance Film Festival and was very, very happy with it. It's simply vignettes of nine women's lives (with intercepting characters and mutual acquaintances), the people in their lives and more importantly the relationships in their lives. They're sad and sometimes not so sad, examples of the walls we build around ourselves in our relationships and how we feel bound to people or stuck in situations that we can't escape. It's very well made, with each women's vignette composed of one long 10-12 minute scene (no cuts). The dialogue is completely natural as are the actor's portrayal's of their characters, and the characters seem so real-life, so believably everyday. I couldn't say which story I enjoyed the most, but Robin Wright Penn and Jason Isaac's scene and relationship was especially poignant for me and I thought, amazingly acted. Overall this movie is great and I would recommend it to anyone who is a student of human nature or just in need of a moving film.

So I got to see this movie at the Sundance Film Festival and I'll admit, I bought tickets to this film because it was in Spanish and I wanted to practice my skills in that language, but, man, was I more than pleasantly surprised by this film. It was hilarious and beautiful and did I mention hilarious and beautiful? The set decoration was amazing, as was the costuming and cinematography, they were all so Art Nouveau and muted with amazing decoration, even if you don't like the story, you'll appreciate the visual beauty of the film. The story itself is so crazy and complicated that I don't think I could explain it, other than it makes fun of Freud, Spanish society pre-WWI and all sorts of other institutions and will make you laugh out loud, even if you don't speak Spanish. I wouldn't recommend this film to younger children, some teenagers might appreciate it, it's engaging enough to hold their attention, but they might not understand all of it. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys film and fun.