Maggie's Plan

Maggie's Plan has a refreshing premise. Maggie is an adviser who wants to become a mother. The film starts with her talking to her friend about artificial insemination and finding a viable candidate for what she wanted. She wanted to have a child, and she didn't want to wait for it in a traditional sense. When a mix-up at her school occurs, she meets John Harding, an anthropology professor who is renowned, but lives in the shadow of his more successful wife, Georgette. When Maggie and John strike up a friendship, culminating to a confession that they had feelings for each other. Three years later, that confession had turned to a marriage, with Maggie feeling that she may have made a mistake in entering a union with John. Seeing as how John and Georgette were still friendly to each other, she concocts a plan to get the exes back together.

Boyhood

Growing up has never portrayed as brilliantly as Richard Linklater did in Boyhood. Shooting his two-hour film in a span of years, he brings us to the experience of actual growing up, from those pre-pubescent years to eventual adulthood. While its premise doesn't seem much on paper, it resonates with you more than you know.

Before Midnight

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick
Director: Richard Linklater

We meet Jesse and Celine in a train, and watched their connection grow through the streets of Vienna. We witness their reunion at a bookshop in Paris, the two being older and wiser. Years later we encounter Jesse and Celine once more, but this time their indivualities reaching out through the sanctity of their marriage. While its predecessors showered us with their personal ideals and realities, this installment treats us to their growth as a couple, and how their relationship has changed over the years. While it did have the similar charm as the first two films, this one worked a bit differently. At the end of the film, I realized that I know these people. I've seen these people. These people are married couples. It doesn't matter whether they're just reaching a decade of their marriage, or they've been married a long time, but Jesse and Celine painted a picture that most married couples have likely gone through in the span of their marriage.

Before Sunset

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Director: Richard Linklater

This is a film that does not go without the other. Before Sunset brings back the familiarity, but with a different tone, as it continues where Before Sunset left off. Nine years after they met, Jesse and Celine reunite, this time, set in the city of Paris. Jesse was a published author, who was on a book tour, when he met Celine, on his last day in Paris. It has the same premise as the first: limited time, a single location, conversations exchanged between the two, Before Sunset brings the viewers into a new light on where Jesse and Celine are in their lives.

Before Sunrise

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Director: Richard Linklater

I wanted to put the reviews for Before Sunrise and Before Sunset together in one post, but I don't think I will do justice to it, so doing it separately. After finding out that Before Midnight was going to hit the screens next week, it was impossible to watch that without knowing/rewatching the first two. Hence, my Before marathons. Before Sunrise introduces us to Jesse and Celine, two people who happened to meet each other on a train, and decided to spend one night together in Vienna before they had to leave, Jesse back to America and Celine going to Paris.