4) Before Midnight
What you consider to be the best in Richard Linklater’s Before… trilogy probably depends on what time of life you find yourself at. Before Sunrise is about American backpacker Jesse and French student Celine, walking the streets of Vienna and falling in love before they have to part ways again. Before Sunset reunites the two nine years later, both having gone their separate ways in the mean time to endure bad relationships and disappointing careers.
Before Midnight takes place nine years later still, and finds Jesse and Celine now married with children, and settling into domestic life as they approach middle age. Each film could individually be accurately described as a masterpiece, each appealing to the viewer more strongly depending on where they find themselves in life, but Midnight – which packs one hell of a punch – might just edge the other two for emotional impact.