Before Sunset
2004 film
Bill Simmons · Chris Ryan · Sean Fennessey · Mallory Rubin
Aired February 4, 2025
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Before Sunset
Before Sunset
Before Sunrise
Before Sunrise
Before Sunrise
Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction
Film credit
Julie Delpy
Stats
- Episodes featuring their films
- 2
- Movies in this archive
- 2
Rewatchables episodes featuring their films
Displaying all 2 episodes
Mentioned in discussions
Who Won the Movie?
Julie Delpy; shared Hawke–Delpy win proposed
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:38:32Read transcript
- Whether this film belongs more to Delpy or Hawke is debated through whose perspective frames the other.
- Delpy receives an explicit choice because the ending depends on the waltz working.
- The counterargument credits Hawke’s listening reaction equally and concludes that both should share the win.
Podcast choices
- Speaker not identified
- Julie Delpy
- Speaker not identified
- Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:27:45Read transcript
- Delpy is the choice; an imagined fair distribution would give Linklater Sunrise, Delpy Sunset and Hawke Midnight.
Apex Mountain
Julie Delpy; movie couples; romantic sequels (qualified); Nina Simone’s posthumous peak (qualified)
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:50Read transcript
- Delpy receives an affirmative answer because of the Academy Award nomination and beloved film; Hawke’s earlier discussion is not settled anew.
- Paris and Paris movies are rejected, with Ratatouille, Breathless, An American in Paris and other alternatives.
- Romantic sequels receive tentative support as a small field.
- Film endings spark a large unresolved comparison with Casablanca, There Will Be Blood, The Godfather, RockyII and The Shawshank Redemption.
- Movies set in one day is a competitive field; this belongs on the list without a firm apex selection.
- Nina Simone’s lifetime apex is rejected, but a posthumous apex through the film’s longevity receives support.
- Paris bookstores and boat rides are proposed; the couple receives affirmative support among movie romances, with the whole trilogy strengthening the case.
- Alternatives for great movie couples include Alvy and Annie, When Harry Met Sally, Casablanca and An Affair to Remember; the Jackie Brown pairing is a joke.
Flex pick · Chris Ryan
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:03:40Read transcript
- Julie Delpy wins the explicit Chris Ryan flex for smoking at the cafe, though more actual puffs are desired.
- Jesse taking a drag, getting his own cigarette and lighting it from hers is admired as authentic smoker behavior.
Apex Mountain
Eurail trains; Austrian palm readers; littering; Kath Bloom; Cemetery of the Nameless; listening booths disputed
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:21:54Read transcript
- Hawke's apex is debated as Reality Bites followed by a re-apex at Training Day.
- Boyhood and the Purge/Sinister period are proposed as a third Hawke wave strengthened by his public storytelling.
- Julie Delpy's apex is placed at Before Sunset.
- Eurail trains, Austrian palm readers, and the film's conspicuous littering are easy answers.
- Vienna is compared with The Third Man and a Billy Joel song as a cultural apex.
- The first date is compared with Neil and Eadie in Heat and Colin Farrell and Gongley in Miami Vice.
- The film is called a powerful date movie that can expose a weak relationship.
- Gen X is placed around 1994–95, with Reality Bites and Kicking and Screaming as reference points.
- The listening booth is compared to Philip Seymour Hoffman hearing jazz in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
- Kath Bloom and the Cemetery of the Nameless receive direct apex answers.
What’s Aged the Worst?
Screenwriting-credit and pay disputes
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:02Read transcript
- Julie Delpy's later dispute over screenwriting credit is the only serious negative raised.
- A pay-gap discussion is acknowledged but not treated as a flaw in the movie itself.
- The phone-free wandering and asking strangers for help would unfold very differently now.
- The lack of navigation apps makes the movie feel more fantastical today than in 1995.
- A younger viewer finding the movie too talkative is offered as a contemporary reception example, not a settled defect.
Jesse in Before Sunrise Award for the Character Who Should Have Smoked but Didn’t
Jesse; probably Céline too
The panel proposes a new category here.
Flex pick · Chris Ryan
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:01:37Read transcript
- Chris explicitly selects the category as his flex after Bill invites him to restore a cut category. — Chris Ryan
- Chris remembers Jesse as a smoker and argues that Hawke's real-life smoking makes the omission puzzling. — Chris Ryan
- The 1995 European setting and the smoking poet make the absence of cigarettes especially conspicuous.
- The lack of smoking now makes the movie feel unexpectedly modern.
- Julie Delpy is also proposed as someone who would plausibly smoke.
In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:35:27Read transcript
- The podcast explicitly states that Roger Ebert gave Before Sunrise three stars.
- Ebert calls the story a nicer, sweeter, gentler version of a scenario that has happened millions of times.
- Ebert frames the film as a Generation X love affair whose leads stand outside their generation's insistence on boredom.
- Ebert describes Julie Delpy as beautiful, warm, and matter-of-fact.
- Ebert says Linklater is interested in ordinary time, people crossing paths, conversation, and uncertain philosophies.
- Ebert’s age of 53 prompts discussion of whether an older critic would grasp this Gen X romance; it is said to work for older viewers now.
Recasting Couch
Salma Hayek or Julie Delpy as Fabienne
In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:48:55Read transcript
- Hayek and Delpy are favored alternatives, followed by joking hometown versions of the film set in Philadelphia, Boston and Long Island.
Casting What-Ifs
Casting notebook alternatives
In the discussion (14)
Approx. transcript time · 01:36:52Read transcript
- The original notebook already wanted Keitel, Walken, Roth and Plummer; Fishburne was Jules before Jackson, with Murphy another listed possibility rather than a confirmed offer.
- Murphy’s move toward family films makes accepting this material uncertain, although it might have been a valuable career choice.
- Madsen committed to Wyatt Earp instead of Vincent, and later Vega-brothers speculation linked his Reservoir Dogs character with Vincent.
- Miramax reportedly resisted Travolta and pushed Day-Lewis; the panel imagines his unusual contemporary-hitman interpretation while strongly preferring the actual casting.
- Dillon reportedly asked for a day before accepting Butch, during which Willis became available; the lost role might have changed Dillon’s trajectory despite later successes.
- A competing Dillon story says he wanted an onscreen boxing match rather than merely asking for time to decide.
- Virginia Madsen was an early Mia choice.
- Miramax preferred Meg Ryan or Holly Hunter before Tarantino won the argument for Uma Thurman.
- Max Julien and Sid Haig reportedly declined Marsellus; Jackson was another backup while Fishburne remained the intended Jules.
- Cusack and possibly Oldman were considered for Lance, followed by Tarantino and then Stoltz; Buscemi’s unavailability led Tarantino to Jimmie, a preferable outcome to replacing Stoltz.
- Irène Jacob and Julie Delpy were considered for Fabienne.
- Delpy’s perceived intelligence makes the panel more interested in that version.
- Phil LaMarr read for Jules and Brett before being cast as Marvin.
- Courtney Love’s claim that Cobain would play Lance and she would play Jody is explicitly doubted.
Displaying all 10 discussions
