My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours

Notes History

Date Viewed	Venue	Note
04.08.15	Netflix	I have all three "Before" movies sitting here waiting for me to watch them. I haven't seen any of these before, and really had very little interest when the first two came out. But now, in the wake of Boyhood and a third installation, I figured I best go back and see them. In many ways, I was least excited about watching the first one. To me, the aging and evolving relationships that are probably explored in the two sequels interests me more than listening to Ethan Hawke and Julie Deply talk for a hundred minutes. What's more is that I feel like I've seen the whole movie just from understanding the premise. It's very plot-light and really when they tell you that it's about two people who meet on a train and spend one night walking around Vienna falling in love, they're really describing the entire movie. Not much happens that you can't imagine as you listen to that sentence. So this was kind of a slog to get through for me. The Viennese scenery was the highlight. However, as a snapshot of a very specific moment in time and life - young combustible love - it is effective.