a review of 爱在黎明破晓前

1st Annual Criterion Challenge A film from the '90s: Before Sunrise This is one that I somehow missed from the time that I first started getting into movies as an art form as a college student. It's altogether probable that I turned my nose up at it as a romance instead of something that I thought would be more interesting, like Linklater's earlier breakout film, "Slacker." The thing that caught me while watching it now is how the structure of the film is only a little different from "Slacker" in terms of embracing the same kind of "let's go for a walk around town and see what's up" hangout vibe, but doing it while hanging out with the same characters for 90 minutes instead of breaking away every five minutes. I think if I'd bothered to watch this movie back then I probably would have understood, which makes this an embarrassing commentary on who I was in 1995. Speaking of which, I do kind of wonder how I would have viewed Hawke's character back then, because I remember having very much the same kind of attitude and having to grow out of that as I got older. I haven't seen the other two films yet, but I feel like I can safely predict that his shitty cynicism cloaked in artistic angst will end up being a roadblock to his relationship with Delpy's character. I've got the other two queued for later in the challenge, so I guess we'll see.