The Big Picture · Discussion · Roundtable

The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 18 - ‘Before Sunset’

June 18, 2025/ 44 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins

Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins put Before Sunset at No. 18, work through why they take it over Before Sunrise, and use it to run the Linklater century filmography, the Hawke and Delpy careers, and Amanda's list of movies to watch next.

32 films across 4 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

No. 18: ‘Before Sunset’25 for 25

Before Sunset 2004

Richard Linklater directs and shares the screenplay with stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, who both fed their own lives into the dialogue while Hawke was going through a divorce. Nine years after Before Sunrise, Jesse's book tour brings Celine to Shakespeare and Company in Paris, and they wander for the 80-minute runtime before his plane. Near-real-time, long walk-and-talks, international landmarks in the background. Both hosts rank it over Sunrise: a richer text and a bigger performance feat. Sean calls the 'baby, you are gonna miss that plane' close the greatest movie ending of their lifetimes and remembers an Angelika audience screaming 'no' at the cut to black. Amanda counters that Before Midnight has soured her read: the couple's love was already flawed here.

Before Sunrise 1995

The origin: two 20-somethings, American Jesse and French Celine, meet on a train to Vienna and spend one night walking the city before Jesse's flight, then part with no contact info and a plan to meet in six months. A '90s American indie built on pure attraction and no real conflict.

Before Midnight 2013

The third film, which reveals the couple got together, married, and had a family, and now grinds through a tumultuous marriage. Its sourness is deliberate, and Sean, who hasn't revisited it, admits it took some of the shine off his first experience of Sunset. Twelve years on, there's no sign of a fourth.

The Linklater century filmographythe movies they weighed and passed on

Boyhood 2014

His most acclaimed film of the century and another experiment in showing time on screen, shot a bit each year for over a decade. Amanda likes it well more than Sean; he finds it as 'real' as Before Sunset but still ranks the trilogy above it.

School of Rock 2003

His biggest hit and the movie the generation below them knows him by. Sean was recently told it plays great with small children.

Everybody Wants Some!! 2016

Sean's devil's-advocate pick from an earlier version of the list. He'd never take it over Before Sunset, but calls it powerful, and the place he and Amanda first clocked Glen Powell.

Waking Life 2001

Tape 2001

Bad News Bears 2005

A Scanner Darkly 2006

Fast Food Nation 2006

Filed with Me and Orson Welles as a clear miss with things to recommend it, not the upper echelon.

Me and Orson Welles 2008

Bernie 2012

Last Flag Flying 2017

Where'd You Go, Bernadette 2019

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood poster

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood 2022

Hit Man 2024

Blue Moon 2025

New Linklater-Hawke collaboration due later in 2025, their first since Boyhood. Linklater is also mid-way through Merrily We Roll Along, a durational project shot over 20 years.

Hawke and Delpy sincethe careers around the pick

Two Days in Paris 2007

Delpy wrote and directed it; Amanda found it very funny. Delpy has directed a handful of films but hasn't been much of a Hollywood linchpin since the trilogy.

Two Days in New York 2012

Delpy's follow-up, the one with Chris Rock.

Training Day 2001

The most famous example of Hawke's willingness to play number two to a bigger star, and it got him an Oscar nomination. He never chased traditional center-of-the-movie stardom.