YMMV / Before Trilogy

aka: Before Sunrise

• Award Snub: Before Sunset and Before Midnight earned Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the leads and Richard Linklater never got nominated for their performances.
• Even Better Sequel:
  • Many critics thought Before Sunset was superior to the original film and attributed this to how the characters, actors and directors matured over the years, as well as Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy's contribution to the screenplay (which was nominated for an Oscar).
  • The same was then again said about Before Midnight.
• Fridge Brilliance: Of the meta kind. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are rather unconventional in that they don't have much of a plot or structure of any kind. Hell, they barely have a score. Before Midnight, however, is more like a traditional, conventional film — a reflection of Jesse and Celine evolving from lovers into partners, and how theirs has become a conventional adult relationship. This also ties into the third film having more supporting characters than the first two. The only time that Jesse and Celine alone together come in the final act of Before Midnight whereas it makes up the entirety of the previous two films.
• Values Dissonance: Celine is an environmentalist, yet she smokes. That may be acceptable in France. In the USA, smoking tobacco is the last thing an environmentalist would be doing.

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