independence day; Richard Linklater proves he's as passionate and original as ever, while a pair of Sundance favorites finds new ways to make us think and laugh.

Byline: Sarah Kerr

When last we saw Jesse and Celine, they had come to the end of a magical night in Vienna. Trading kisses and tearful goodbyes, the jaded but good-hearted Yankee and the idealistic jeune fille agreed to return to their separate lives in America and Paris; if destiny intended, they would meet again on the train platform in exactly six months. Released in 1995, Before Sunrise starred Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as impromptu young lovers and sealed director Richard Linklater's reputation as the bard of Generation X. Here was a dead-on portrait of children of the nineties: torn between irony and sincerity, drunk on the feeling of having broken away from history, overwhelmed by their limitless freedom to choose.

Before Sunset picks up the story nine years later. The nineties are history, and Linklater's characters are still looking for happiness, but like the world, they feel a little less free. It turns out that Jesse flew back to Vienna to meet Celine as promised, but she wasn't there. Since then he's wound up unhappily married and sticking with his wife for the sake of their child-just how his younger self feared he'd end up. Still smitten by the memory of that one enchanted night, he's written it up as a successful novel; as the film opens he's ...