 The before trilogy directed by Richard Linklater and written by Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were three fascinating movies. They look at love and the evolution of it at three different stages of the main characters, Jesse and Selene's lives. These are dialogue-heavy films and Linklater, Hawke and Delpy are so skilled at making these conversations not only feel real, but in making the audience feel like the third person on Jesse and Selene's dates and in their evolution. Further than that, the before trilogy is a love that grows up with its audience, tackling hope, regret and reality, and exposes each of their characters' flaws and strengths to ultimately portray a love that begins off as hopeful and ends up being a cynical yet honest portrayal of love. Before we get into the before trilogy, it's time for me to stop the rain here for a second and chase this bag. 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Honestly it is a really fun game and if you have it already, you should know that this month, Raid is about to release a huge champion update, which includes rebalancing a bunch of different champions to make PvP arena battles more competitive, and even introducing the forge which will save you time to craft those top quality artifacts. So download this game and if you go to the description, the link to download is right there. And as a bonus, if you are a new player, you'll get 100,000 silver and the champion Death Channer all for free. Check your in-game inbox in the upper right hand corner where they'll be available for the next 30 days only. 1995's first entry before sunrise is so ambitious in its love. It's dreamlike, far-fetched, romantic and it is so hopeful. The odds of you meeting a stranger on a train who is willing to spend an entire day and night with a person that they only talk to for 20 or so minutes is obviously rare, but it's about the idea of it. It's less about the reality of the situation but of how these are real people learning about each other and themselves over one night. The two are taken across Vienna and the two strangers and soon to be lovers share these dreamlike moments. Whether that be awkwardly sharing gazes at the music store or sharing their first kiss in an amusement park. This is a hopeless romantic dream. It's in these moments that give before sunrise its beauty and sense of romance. But before sunrise is more than just a few moments scrambled together and its substance really comes through its dialogue. The line builds Jesse and Selene into real people giving them depth, flaws and ambitions that are believable. At 23 years old you feel like you've seen it all and done it all, like you know everything, but there's naivety and youthful hope in their conversations. All of these are evident in their discussions, just like how they can't fathom becoming the couple arguing on the train at the beginning of the film and like how Selene believes in the fortune teller while Jesse doesn't. We find out that Selene is a little more hopeful and romantic while Jesse plays more of the cynic. These ideas and conversations carry them through the next two movies and through sunset and midnight we are shown how some aspects of their character change and how some never do. And this film establishes key points in their character, like how Selene wants to be loved more than anything and how Jesse wants to excel at something. Our sunset to me was the odd one out but still equally as touching as the last. Sunset continued with their dialogue heavy approach but in terms of setting Selene and Jesse only go to a few different places around the coffee shop in Paris and the long takes of them simply conversing and walking were captivating. And again that's Oat to the trio's ability to create conversations and Oat to link later for making these cuts feel seamless. Sunset was also the shortest entry of the three at a run time of 80 minutes before sunset found the two 9 years later and regretting that they didn't reunite after they were supposed to as stated at the end of Before Sunrise. This was my favorite entry of the three films, Selene and Jesse didn't meet any new people like the poet or the fortune teller, they didn't go to any real remarkable places like the music store or the amusement park but instead Sunset carries on the ideas of sunrise and really harnesses the ability of dialogue to fill in the gaps in time from appearance to jobs and everything else that the 9 years of separation has left them with. But when it comes to the ideas of sunset and its importance on regret I'm always reminded of this line. It's when you're young just believe there'll be many people with whom you connect with later in life you realize it only happens a few times. Before sunset is a game of catch up but at the same time the two are trying to gauge the type of person that each has become and to test the tangibility of that connection and this is because that connection they had 9 years ago was so perfect and so genuine and as the movie goes on they slowly fall in love with each other again and that is illustrated by the weight of their conversations getting heavier and heavier the longer the movie goes on and by Jesse who keeps pushing off his flight. This is ultimately wrapped up perfectly by Selene's beautiful song and Jesse finally saying you are going to miss that plane which was a almost perfect ending to confirm that they are not only happy with the people that they have become but that they are still in love and that that connection was still strong making before sunset my favorite entry and a lot of that is owed to the tremendous chemistry that Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke have on screen. Finally before midnight finds the couple again 9 years later settled down with two kids of their own alongside Jesse's son but it feels like it's been so much longer than 9 years. Selene and Jesse don't feel as connected at all frankly and this movie is truly what awakens the audience from that dream before midnight is honest in that sense from Jesse's first conversation with his son you can see where his head's at. His son lives in the US while he lives in Europe and as we remember in before sunrise Jesse was the son in a divorced relationship and so he feels a personal responsibility to his son and to his son's growth. Before midnight presents this conflict of Jesse wanting to be with his son as a slow build up as he first presents the idea to Selene about being closer to his son which turns into Selene believing that Jesse wants to move to the US and it starts off in the car when Jesse doesn't get to talk to his son on the phone then at the dinner table with guests and finally reaching its breaking point in the hotel where we get that exhausting argument. 35 minutes of them as Linklater says defending themselves which in that light makes a lot of sense. Their entire argument was never solely about moving to the US but it was about defending their worth and their place in that relationship. It was about how they didn't have the time to sit down and discuss the problems in their relationships because they were so busy living life having children and they put this offer so long that it boiled into this into conflict. This movie was emotionally exhausting a beautiful movie but a painful one because of how they built up these two idealized almost perfect people and this perfect relationship and how they brought them back down to earth. Jesse and Selene are hurting each other for the first time in front of us which is why it is so painful. We've never seen them in this light. We the audience thought we knew them but we only caught them at their best with glimpses of their flaws but here they were at their most offensive. Before sunrise and before sunset built two people who swore that they were special and who maybe once thought that this could never happen to them. As we remember the first scene of before sunrise is two couples arguing and how Jesse and Selene naively couldn't fathom reaching that point yet here they were resenting each other in a hotel in Greece. But like the arguments of Selene's parents Jesse and Selene would end the night and end their argument laughing and more importantly end the night together. I don't know if it's fair to say that this is the natural evolution of love. This is definitely a heavily dramatized version of it but this trilogy really illustrates and especially with this final film that love is still love through the good and the bad through its dreamy hopeful stages through its uncertainty and through its pain and conflict because love is and will always be a union between two different people who share a unique bond and so conflict is inevitable. The before trilogy is an example that love is sacrifice the same way Jesse sacrificed to be with Selene and the kids in Europe and the same way that she is sacrificed so that Jesse can be a carefree writer and I think there is no other person in that world that they would want to be with even through the hurt and through the pain they were able to supply each other with the one thing that the other needed. Like she said in before sunrise Selene wanted to be loved and to love and that meant a lot to her and there Jesse was still loving her through their conflict and Jesse wanted to excel and so Selene sacrificed a lot for him so that he could and I want to point out that every time Selene left the room she came back showing how much she valued their love because that is real life amidst the hurt and the pain they will always be there for each other it's not perfect but it's real in the before trilogy love is ultimately about what is real and every single moment from imaginary phones in Vienna to their boat ride in France and finally their argument in Greece all of it was real and all of it is love