Review of Before Midnight (2013) by Swayamdeep S — 07 Sep 2013

Richard Linklater has done it again. He is Master Yoda of Indie genre. It is just amazing how he turns up every 10 years with Jesse & Celine just talking & creates a very beautiful movie.Jesse & Celine are now married. Now both of them have real world problems they didn't have when they were nineteen. They keep on talking about life, their future, past, long term commitment, etc. Unlike its predecessors it has a scene wherein they talk with other people, all of whom have their own theories on relationship & life. But Jesse wants them to move back to Chicago so that he could spend time with his son. Now that's the issue. This leads to an argument which gets bitter.The 30 minute argument scene is like a real slice of life, exceptionally well done. In the build up to the scene you can see how they know that the issue will come up & how Jesse tries to bring it up in a way that he can have upper hand in the argument, but Celine tries to somehow ignore it but then she knows that it is inevitable so she starts doing the same. The way they argue is true to the character development throughout the series. In between the argument Celine says "Here we go you always play the part of one & only rational one, & I am the irrational, emotional hormone crazy one because I have emotions". She has always aggressively fought. She as Jesse describes her thinks anger as a positive human emotion. But Jesse is laid back about it as he said 20 year back " if I could just accept the fact that my life is supposed to be difficult then I might not get so pissed-off about it . ".

The whole thing is classic.

Excellent acting, excellent direction. In pure critical terms I will put the Before trilogy at the very top, even above LOTR & TDK or any trilogy for that matter. Hope they make another in next 10 years.