Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine’s review published on Letterboxd:
In Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, love equals time and time is not linear but rather circular. It ages as a vicious circle, and just like madness, it keeps trying a different thing expecting a different result. Not giving away any spoilers, but the ending could have only being better if it happened on a train, though I can see why that may have seen a bit too much on the nose. I did appreciate almost the whole subversive take of the beginning of the first movie tho.
Another thing I loved about this movie was the fact that we had some room for other people to join into the dialogue, and will later influence the much quotable discussions between this couple who find themselves at the literal midnight, the end of the road, of their relationship? This other characters also helps bringing something new to the table, even though the best is to watch Ethan and Julie have and off discussion, Linklater enrich these other people with some real fine conversations.
Speaking of discussions, this is once again where the movie really shines. It walks the thin line between the deep and the cheesy. There are lots of great quotable lines that grabs you the audience and get you invested into these two,
The cinematography was also very good, and pretty distinctive. I remember the first two having this almost cold, sunset-ish red/pink tone (which the movie, in a meta moment, pokes fun at) for much vibrant, sun-filled and almost dream-like cinematography.
All in all, a great romantic trilogy about how our own maturity and mistakes influences the way he love and treat others, the consequences that comes with our actions and the many fantasies we have for a better ending, that may or may not come.
