After Sunrise: An (Abridged) History of Richard Linklater

Given that this year Richard Linklater is up for an Oscar, it seemed like the perfect time to review his original hit, Before Sunrise*.

The premise of the film is that Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) meet on a train: she's going to Paris, he to Vienna, and then back to America. It's a meet-cute, but because at the time they were both pre-stardom indie actors, it feels natural to believe that one is traveling, the other a student, and that they could meet in this way. It helps that Jesse and Celine play off one another perfectly--he's a little jerkish, while she's a little bit of a head-in-the-clouds.

After spontaneously taking a liking to one another, Jesse convinces Celine to depart the train with him at Vienna, and they decide to spend the day together. The film tracks these hours, and partly in consequence, partly by choice, is shot in a very interesting way. There are multiple long takes focusing on the pair's conversation in the train, the streetcar, and as they wander around the streets and bridges of the Austrian city. Fittingly, the film was shot on location.

*You could argue that Dazed and Confused was his original hit, which is perfectly legitimate. But Before Sunrise is the movie that originated his trademark style.

Stuck together in a strange city, the plot revolves around Jesse and Celine's conversations, which regard both the beautiful scenery and themselves. They share their lives, and in so doing become more intimate as a couple at the same time as they become familiar to the audience. Yet these dialogues often take you out of the movie--not because of the context, but rather the content. As the pair meditates on their futures, it causes you to contemplate your own future.

This effect is particularly acute given that the film was followed by Before Sunset and Before Midnight, films where Hawke and Delpy reprise their roles nine and eighteen years later, respectively. With this foreknowledge, their mentions of ten and twenty years into the future echo more strongly than they would have otherwise. Linklater no doubt recognized this. Indeed, in creating this triptych, Linklater created a precursor for what so far is his most acclaimed film: Boyhood.

While the setup of Boyhood is quite different to that of Before Sunrise--the former revolving around a young boy growing up, rather than tracking the relationship of a couple--it fits a similar theme: coming-of-age. (As well as, notably, sharing an actor: Ethan Hawke.) Both films are attempts to track life as it is lived, in real time, or if not 'real' time then real enough, a day condensed to one hundred and ten minutes, a childhood relayed in three hours.

Paradoxically, what feels most precious about both movies are the quickly-passing moments of spontaneity and intimacy. It's a look, a kiss, it's not knowing you are happy until you've thought about it afterward. By combining realism with a degree of fiction and synchronicity, Linklater has memorialized on film the feeling of nostalgia. It burns sometimes, but it has such a lovely view.

***

Before Sunrise has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was released in 1995.

Boyhood has a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It was released in 2014, and is currently nominated for Best Picture.

Romancing the Stone

I am literally a month late with this. Christmas is so far behind us that if you turned and looked over your shoulder it would just be a speck on the horizon. Nevertheless, I have to review The Family Stone. It's a family movie, but not a movie for families--no, this is a movie about a family.

Everett Stone is the eldest son of the Stone clan, and his mother's favorite: Sybil, played by Diane Keaton, has promised him her mother's wedding ring for his future wife. And he seems to have found that wife--or, at least the girl he takes home to his mother. Unfortunately, the moment that Sarah Jessica Parker meets the Stones is also the same time that everything goes to, well. You know.

Sarah as Meredith appears to be everything the Stone's aren't: polite, clean-cut, prudish. She's also deeply, deeply unhappy, and wields an armor of self-assurance as though to ward against all possible heartbreak. The Stones notice this.

What I love about this movie is how unabashedly inappropriate it is. The Stones make no bones (ha!) about the fact that they don't like her for Everett. (Sybil and sister Amy, played by Rachel McAdams, are particularly adamant on this fact.) Meanwhile, Everett is of little to no help, and seems just  as confused as his family to find Meredith in his life, despite the fact that he plans on marrying her.

Her relationship crumbling, her mental health in shambles, Sarah-as-Meredith then proceeds to fall in lust ... with Everett's younger brother, Ben. (Played by Luke Wilson. But honestly, how could anyone not fall in lust with Luke Wilson?) Just to pile it on Everett meets Meredith's sister, played by Claire Danes, and seems to fall in love instantly. The only person not enjoying a moment of personal romantic fulfillment is Amy, until her high school crush shows up. It's a hell of a show.

The Family Stone is not an award-winning movie, and it doesn't aspire to be. But despite the crazy plot twists and the insane romantic machinations there is something so true about it that you can't help but watch. Like, yes, of course Luke Wilson's character eats pot brownies with his dad! Of course!

Sarah Jessica Parker's performance is the other best aspect of the film. Meredith is a workaholic and too anal, and too unhappy, to be likable. As Ben says to her, "You have a freak flag. You just don't fly it." Her decision to fly that freak flag, to give up the ghost and just be herself, is what propels the movie from mediocre to having a slim margin of greatness. She's is a testament to the fact that you don't have to be lovable to be loved, and despite having on paper the most unlikeable character, Meredith is the one you end up rooting for.

Conversely, the disappointment in all this might just be Everett. Dermot Mulraney's normally striking reticence works against him here, and we're left with a main lead who is barely noticeable against the backdrop of such a strong supporting cast.

The Family Stone came out in 2005, has a 51% on Rotten Tomatoes, and you can very much find it online or on DVD.

***

Addendum: if you would prefer a non-Christmas themed family movie, check out City Island (2010). It has some of the more humorous notes and stars Andy Garcia. Win-win.