Before Midnight 2013

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: If I were only allowed to see one movie this year, I'd want it to be Before Midnight. If I were only allowed two trips to a theater this year, I'd see it twice. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The actual give-and-take between the characters is uncomfortably emotionally accurate, which means it will make an excellent, if challenging, date movie for both new and old couples. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Mr. Linklater's shooting style is so graceful and unobtrusive, and Mr. Hawke and Ms. Delpy inhabit their characters with such conviction, that the challenge and originality of the movies are easy to overlook. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Before Midnight counts on our previous investment to keep us riveted. We are. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: It's a wildly uneven enterprise, overall. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Bittersweet, intelligently written, deftly acted and painfully honest. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Though "Before Midnight" is often uncomfortable to watch, it's never less than mesmerizing - and ultimately, a joy to walk with this prickly but fascinating couple again. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: In the process of justifying its own existence, Before Midnight redeems the very notion of sequels. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are both fine actors, but you'd be hard pressed to sit engrossed in a conversation between any actors that goes on for more than a couple of minutes. Usually. But not here. Read more

Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press: Not only as good as the first two, it's arguably better, tackling weightier, trickier issues - as in, mature everyday love - with wit, humor and breathtaking directness. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: If the first two films belong with the greatest (if talkiest) movie romances of all time, the new film is richer, riskier, and more bleakly perceptive about what it takes for love to endure (or not) over the long haul. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This one is a slowly evolving quarrel between two people who know each other inside out, delivered with the same intelligence and discernment but, as you might imagine, something of a cold shower. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: What Linklater, Delpy and Hawke have achieved with their trilogy is at once fluidly cinematic and novelistic, with stories behind the stories and possible endings beyond the endings we're given. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Before Midnight is the fullest and richest and saddest of the three movies in the trilogy. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Love is messy here, life cannot be controlled, satisfaction is far from guaranteed. Romance is rocky at best. But romance still is. Read more

Cary Darling, Dallas Morning News: How (Jesse and Celine) try to rekindle that flame is what drives Midnight, a film that feels so authentic it's like overhearing a conversation you're not sure you should be hearing. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's not just darker than the previous two films. It's bigger, deeper, and more searching. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: An emotionally astute and tremendously enjoyable conclusion to this rather improbable trilogy. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: This is a universal X-ray of bourgeois love, one that in a few decades will get around to something like Amour. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: Though this stage is harder to watch, audiences who have aged along with Celine and Jesse will treasure this new episode. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: If anything, the films have only gotten better by letting the relationship marinate. "Midnight's" more disgruntled edge reflects what creeps up on couples as years pass, regrets stack up, kids factor in, real life intervenes. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Hawke and Delpy, who co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater, have the sort of rapport that makes you believe they've loved each other for years. This makes it all the more painful when they start to drift apart. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: "Before Midnight" is heartbreaking, but not because of Jesse and Celine. It's the filmmakers' passions that seem to have cooled. Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: Now that we know what was coming, nine years later and then nine years later, Sunrise is like a six-sided die turning into a 20-sided die. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Delpy and Hawke, who've invested this trilogy with the fine shadings of life lived, do extraordinary things with small moments. Read more

Farran Smith Nehme, New York Post: Finding romance is easy. Staying together is hard. Making a movie this warm, funny, and rigorously truthful about lovers trying to remain partners is even harder. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Offers a remarkably intimate and provocative study of a marriage. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The strength of Before Midnight is how real everything feels. Read more

Pablo Villaca, Chicago Sun-Times: Linklater and his actors expose small fissures with an admirable subtlety. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: From first scene to last, Hawke and Delpy shine brilliantly, wearing their roles like second skins. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: The Before series has steadily gotten better as it goes along, which is more than any but the most optimistic among us dare to hope for from love. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Lovely. Insightful. Sad. Funny. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Having created and aged into their characters, both Delpy and Hawke are superb at doing what professional actors find so difficult - not seeming to act. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: One of the best films of 2013 and the irresistible climax to Richard Linklater's trilogy of on-the-run amour. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Whether they're taking a lengthy car trip or strolling through a Greek village, their badinage is so organic that you'd never guess the two had written, much less rehearsed, all this dialogue. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: Hawke and Delpy remain as charming as ever, and their combined goofiness is more endearing than annoying. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: It can't be stressed how refreshing it is to be treated at the multiplex like a person with a brain. Read more

Mick LaSalle, Hearst Newspapers: Before Midnight is fascinating to watch, and so long as Celine and Jesse are communicating, there's still hope. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: One of the great movie romances of the modern era achieves its richest and fullest expression in Before Midnight. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Proceed with caution and tissues, and possibly wearing armor. Read more