owen

this one didn’t do much for me, especially after having such a great time with *after hours *recently. robert de niro is fantastic and the score is so lovely but nothing else really clicked for me. scorsese is obviously a very talented director, but i was left feeling underwhelmed. it felt oddly drawn out and the ending was slightly anticlimactic after getting built up throughout the film. maybe it will need a rewatch, but i don’t see myself thinking about *taxi driver* often in the future

i’ve kinda been slacking on my movie watching so that might’ve affected my experience watching this, but it just didn’t have quite the same magic as the first two. there were certainly scenes where i was drawn into the conversations that jesse and celine were having and i was absolutely charmed in other scenes, but for the most part this one felt a bit more tedious than the previous films. obviously relationships are very complicated, but it almost seemed like near the end misunderstandings were being created just to keep a dialogue going and to increase tension when it didn’t feel necessary. it’s probably very realistic but it just isn’t my favorite thing to watch. i’m so glad that i finally got around to watching this trilogy though, it was totally worthwhile!

i enjoyed *before sunrise*, but *before sunset* is really where it’s at. maybe it’s because of the established history between the two main characters, but i fully bought into their connection this time. i also thought the dialogue in this film was more fleshed out and natural compared to the first, most of the lines in here are simply perfect. obviously, this film wouldn’t have existed without *before sunrise, *but something about it just felt deeper which i definitely preferred. very excited to finish this trilogy!

the pretend phone calls scene was so genius