Before Sunset, moving along with my Best Films Rewatch

I decided to publish two posts today, because I didn't want my tiny rant on yesterday's Academy announcement to tarnish my Best Films Rewatch. As things are heating up it will be very difficult for me to keep the two separated.

Yesterday I watched the incredible "Before Sunset," The middle film in Richard Linklater's "Before Trilogy."

"Before Sunrise," the first film in the trilogy, was such an incredible surprise for me. As I mentioned in a previous post I was nearing the end of my Ethan Hawke binge, having fallen in love with Todd from "Dead Poets Society." "Before Sunrise" was a turning point in his career and also, interestingly enough, where my binge ended, interestingly enough.  I have never even seen "Training Day" for instance...that was before I began to watch all of the Oscar nominated films...but I of course saw "Boyhood" and "Before Midnight."

When "Before Sunset" came out, many declared it one of the best films of 2004 and better than the original. Both statements are true although it builds greatly on the first film as well as what would come next in "Before Midnight."

This time, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy assist in writing the Oscar nominated screenplay, which is partly why it seems to be improv'd in moments. I had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Delpy in Los Angeles when "Before Midnight" was released, and she told me that no...everything we see is actually scripted, which makes it an even better screenplay.

There are many scenes that are beyond beautiful in the film, but the last 20 or so minutes, when they are in the car (Delpy truly deserved an Oscar nomination for that incredible scene alone) followed by her apartment, that made me question how the film lost the Adapted Screenplay Oscar. Well, it lost to "Sideways," which is a good screenplay...but in context of the 2004 race, also the consolation prize for losing Best Picture.





I feel as if I am now in a very difficult place when it comes to ranking these films. "Before Sunset" is such an incredible film...absolutely riveting. In this day and age it is very difficult not to be distracted when watching movies at home, but last night as I was watching this film I couldn't take my eyes away from the screen. However, does it make the list? At this point I already have two "talky" films near the top. If I add "Before Sunset" that takes away "The Empire Strikes Back." But in actuality, that doensn't even matter because "Black Swan" is going to make the list which takes "The Empire Strikes Back" off the top 10 anyway.

At this point I don't even want to rank the films, but that's the finish line isn't it?