Linklater Sharpens His Pencil

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2015)

Nine years after Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) first met, they encounter each other again on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.
Years before the critical acclaim of "Boyhood" or the cult status of "Dazed and Confused", Richard Linklater caught our attention with "Slacker", essentially a film of nothing more than a series of folks discussing a series of bizarre theories (and Madonna's pap smear).
Then, Linklater took that concept and matured it. By replacing cranks with philosophizing adults, he was able to create "Before Sunrise". A brilliant film that relies almost entirely on a single conversation. He then gave us this film, again utilizing that dense, brilliant script... but giving us the twist of the same two people meeting nine years later, without any contact in between. So clever, executed so well.