Where'd You Go, Bernadette Is Shockingly Lifeless

After more than a decade doing independently financed arthouse fare, director Richard Linklater, one of the best directors currently working today, uses a film adaptation of the Maria Semple-penned book Where'd You Go, Bernadette as his return to more broadly appealing commercial fare, a domain he hasn't traipsed into since that Bad News Bears remake in 2005 that history has left to be forgotten. Linklater has been on an incredible hot streak in the 2010s with films like Bernie, Before Midnight and Boyhood, which makes it all the more profoundly disappointing how underwhelming his final feature of the decade ends up being. Linklater's well-known for making quiet films but they've never been as lacking in a pulse like Where'd You Go, Bernadette.

Before Sunset Is Top-of-The-Line Romantic Drama Cinema

It took me six years, but I've finally watched all three of Richard Linklater's Before movies. I inadvertently decided to watch these in an order that is guaranteed to understandably make many people's skin crawl as I first watched Before Midnight in its initial theatrical back in July 2013 before finally getting around to Before Sunrise just last August and then finally coming around to Before Sunset on Valentine's Day 2019. This wasn't my long-game attempt to create some kind of Machete Order for viewing these three movies, it was merely my inability to watch the original two movies before seeing Before Midnight combined with me taking forever to get around to watching its two predecessors. 

Before Sunrise Kicked Off A Sprawling Intimate Story Excellently

I believe I have to turn in my Film Critic Badge for saying this, but I saw Before Midnight in its summer 2013 theatrical run without having seen either of its two predecessors. I know, I'm a heathen for doing so, but even without knowledge of the prior films, I still loved Before Midnight, it was easily one of my favorite movies of 2013 and it got me hooked on Richard Linklater, one of my all-time favorite directors, as a filmmaker. Five years after watching Before Midnight, I felt it was high time to finally watch the two movies that preceded Linklater's 2013 gem, because I'm timely like that, a mission I would kick off with an inaugural viewing of the 1995 motion picture Before Sunrise.

Last Flag Flying Is The Newest Thoughtful & Heartfelt Accomplishment From Director Richard Linklater

Some of the most famous movies made by director Richard Linklater tend to center on youthful protagonists, like the High Schoolers in Dazed and Confused, the college-aged fraternity boys of Everybody Wants Some!!! or the lead character who inhabits numerous stages of youth in Boyhood. Linklater has a knack for writing both realistic and dramatically involving younger characters, but Last Flag Flying shows he doesn't lose his talents as a screenwriter when he's dealing with older individuals (fellow entries in Linklater's dynamite 2010's run Before Midnight and Bernie are similar showcases for this), on the contrary, he seems to thrive when given the opportunity to explore more life-experienced human beings.

The 15:17 To Paris Goes Off The Rails In Thoroughly Lifeless Ways

On August 21, 2015, an extraordinary event happened on a train departing from Amsterdam and heading to Paris, France. As a man got his gun ready and planned to commit an act of terrorism, three ordinary Americans, Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone leaped into action and took down the man before he could actually execute his plan.  The trio subsequently became heavily publicized heroes with their actions resulting in a book chronicling that fateful day as well as a film adaptation of that fateful day entitled The 15:17 To Paris starring the three men as themselves. While the actions of this trio were incredibly noble and admirable, tragically, the film adaptation of those actions is all around dismal.

Journey To Italy Is A Quietly Tragic Romantic Drama NOT A Concert Movie About Journey Performing In Italy As I Thought

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #31
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #12

We have plenty of movies about people falling in love, with the subgenre thriving because of people of all genders getting to live vicariously through the characters on-screen engaging in a perfect romance they know can't possibly exist in the real world. There's plenty of those movies I like but I also tend to gravitate heavily towards movies with more realistic depictions of romance, specifically, one's that show people in either romantic partnerships or marriages that are crumbling and how that deteriorating relationship affects both people. That's why Richard Linklater's Before Midnight is so excellent, among many many other reasons!