Director: Richard Linklater
Before Sunrise is a film that's easy to hate. It's certainly sentimental, and it's painfully sincere. In fact, the sincerity of the two main characters is their defining characteristic. Before Sunrise asks a question, 'What if two attractive people, a man and a woman, met one another and began speaking honestly? What would happen if they spent a night together?'
Before Sunrise works because while its characters are romantic, it itself is not especially so - I don't think its characters' long conversations are words from the director's mouth, or that we're supposed to believe that either person has a 'foolish' perspective that we as viewers are inherently superior to. Rather, it's a film about the promise and wonder of youth (and youthful love) coupled with the fear of losing that youth.