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Advice I Would Give to My Younger Self

kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, Jan. 20, 2025
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Photo: “Mies Couch”. Drawn by Plymayer. (January 2025)

I rewatched two-thirds of Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy, skipping over the first film of the series to focus on the latter two. The trilogy consists of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight each film spaced roughly a decade apart. The story follows main characters, Jesse and Celine, in a conversation heavy chance encounter showing the evolution of a Romantic to a Cynic, each film taking place in a single day set in front of a backdrop of an idyllic European city.

The first film was released when I was around nine years old and I quickly stopped the VHS when the conversation began racing circles around my head with talk about the number of soul mates splitting and increasing with population growth. I L-O-V-E-D Before Sunrise one decade later when I finally could comprehend the “asinine art history” comment. It has always taken a decade to catch up in age with the two main characters. Before Sunset became my favorite film once I was out of my twenties; and watching Before Midnight ten years later lets me appreciate how youthful and aesthetic Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy were when they filmed the installment in the early-2010s.

Twenty years ago, I was so thankful for stories like the Before Trilogy that followed the same characters over decades (I even wrote one of my first college papers on the first two films for a writing class with a very lenient English professor). The movies acted like a road map of sorts, I would watch a situation play out, learn the lesson of the consequences without having to experience it on my own, apply the lesson to future interactions. Middle age life paths created by life choices require a much more specific road map. It is now easier to understand that the two characters in the Before Trilogy are two fictional individuals with dialogue written in a screenplay by a team of screenwriters. The romantic relationship and personal struggles of Jesse and Celine are no longer relatable in Before Midnight, but they might make sense one day when faced with a similar situation.


Advice I Would Give to My Younger Self

I forge my own life road maps these days. I understand my level of comfort is highly dependent on a number of needs being met and I wish to share tips when I learn about something that changes my life for the better.

Forty-Percent Zinc Oxide Paste

Not to borrow graduation-day advice from Baz Luhrmann’s “Sunscreen” song, but a distant cousin to sunblock, 40% Zinc Oxide Paste has been an absolute game changer for my life this week. Nothing has worked better to combat chapped hands from the cold, scars from insect bites, and acne blemishes, NOTHING! I am such a believer in the benefits of 40% Zinc Oxide paste that I use it in place of lotion and my skin has never been more comfortable.


Today’s original art was submitted by Plymayer. Check out Plymayer’s other work on the duck here:

https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/plymayer/


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anonymous?

Banes at 9:00AM, Jan. 21, 2025

Great article; great thoughts. I appreciate the Trilogy of movies, though I still haven't seen the last one. Before Sunset in particular was a standout (gotta see it again).

plymayer at 7:45AM, Jan. 20, 2025

Ideas and goals change as we get older. Opinions especially on movies definitely do. Can be good to reconsider or visit old ideas from time to time. Avatar was much better when I rewatched it years later. Advice I'd give my younger self: Not suitable for this venue. I'm glad you used my drawing. Thanks.

marcorossi at 4:18AM, Jan. 20, 2025

OMG! Are you held hostage by Big Zink?

InkyMoondrop at 3:42AM, Jan. 20, 2025

I love those movies. Sure, sometimes it's a hit and miss with Linklater, but he loves to experiment and make films about the everyday-kind of things in life we often overlook. As much as I hated how Boyhood lacked most things that looking back we'd say emotionally defined us, his perspective of building a(n overall pretty awesome) movie out of the less climatic and less cathartic moments is also a valid one. His trilogy you mentioned sometimes reminds me of The Apu Trilogy, an Indian masterpiece from the fifties, where the same character (but obviously not the same actor) is shown, first about his childhood, then at school age, when he starts to live an independent life and finally as a man.


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