What the corpus says about Before Midnight

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished Before Midnight and wants to know what to watch next.

Below is what people who love movies said on three podcasts (Blank Check, The Rewatchables, The Big Picture) about Before Midnight and the films around it, one line each. Every line starts with where it came from, in brackets: [show · episode · time · speaker (how sure we are it was them)]. A [pairs] line says how often two films were put side by side. A [speaker] line says what that person likes. A [bits] line lists a show's running bits: a format, not an opinion.

[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:35:58 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Before Midnight ↔ T2 Trainspotting · theme · Both revisit a monument to youth with the characters twenty years older. · "This is similar to T2, uh, transpotting where it's like to do a meditation on these things"
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:35:07 · Chris Ryan (0.60)] Gladiator II ↔ Before Midnight · what-if · Chris wanted Gladiator II to have the guts of Before Midnight, with the couple together and unhappy. · "Everything that I'm kind of like asking for from Gladiator 2 where I was like, have some guts"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Eyes Wide Shut · 2:38:40 · unknown (0.30)] Before Midnight ↔ Eyes Wide Shut · ending analog · The speaker reads the ending of Eyes Wide Shut as like the ending of Before Midnight. · "It reminds me a lot, like the more recent, uh, analog, I think of, is the ending of before midnight"
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:36:16 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Richard Linklater ↔ Before Midnight · people · Linklater is a favorite filmmaker; the Before trilogy is among Chris's favorite trilogies. · "The before trilogy is one of my 3 favorite movie trilogies."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:36:25 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Before Midnight · fun · Chris loves it as a brutal punch in the gut about long relationships; the Before trilogy is among his three favorite trilogies. · "this is such a punch in the gut, and I love that."
[The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 0:57:26 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Tom Cruise ↔ Eyes Wide Shut · programming · If Cruise would answer everything, the Rewatchables pick is Eyes Wide Shut. · "I would do eyes-wise shut."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:37:13 · Chris Ryan (0.40)] Gladiator II ↔ Wicked · programming · Gladiator II's CGI baboons made it feel like being dumped into Wicked. · "I actually felt like we got dumped into Wicked or something, you know?"
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:29:56 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] Trainspotting ⇒ T2 Trainspotting (the host's read) · lineage · T2 is about the Trainspotting guys as middle-aged men reckoning with their mistakes. · "This is about the guys who were in train spotting kind of being middle-aged men now."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Barry Lyndon · 0:13:57 · unknown (0.30)] Barry Lyndon ↔ Eyes Wide Shut · programming · These two Kubrick films feel warm to the speaker compared with the rest. · "But Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut are the 2 that feel like they sort of cut through to me on a deeper level, where I feel genuine warmth and affection for them."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:06:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Gladiator ⇒ Gladiator II (the host's read) · lineage · The sequel is very similar in structure and story to the original. · "it's pretty well known that this movie is very similar in structure and story to the original."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:30:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] T2 Trainspotting ↔ Danny Boyle · craft · T2 carries Danny Boyle's throw-everything-at-the-wall style. · "Danny Boyle sort of signature kind of like throw everything at the wall style."
[The Big Picture · The Nicole Kidman Hall of Fame, and ‘Babygirl’ · 0:24:49 · unknown (0.30)] Eyes Wide Shut ⇒ Babygirl (the host's read) · lineage · The stoned late-night bedroom lecture after the rave echoes Eyes Wide Shut. · "Nice callback to eyes wide shut and lecturing Tom Cruise in the bedroom while stoned out of their minds."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:15:52 · Mallory Rubin (0.60)] Gladiator ⇒ Gladiator II (the host's read) · lineage · The sequel's plot, structure, approach and pacing mirror the first, forcing a one-to-one comparison. · "it's just the movie is so similar to the 1st one in terms of plot, structure, approach, focus, pacing."
[The Big Picture · Janicza Bravo and Brett Gelman Channel Rejection and Anxiety to Make ‘Lemon’ | The Big Picture · 0:04:44 · Alison Herman (0.85)] Eyes Wide Shut ⇒ Juneteenth (Atlanta episode) (the host's read) · lineage · Donald Glover's character describes the party as a Spike-directed reboot of Eyes Wide Shut. · "this is like a spikely directed reboot of eyes wide shut"
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:21:39 · Mallory Rubin (0.50)] Gladiator ⇒ Gladiator II (the host's read) · lineage · Because it mirrors the first film, outcomes for characters become predictable by inversion. · "I almost felt like it became impossible not to know what was going to happen to certain people"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Eyes Wide Shut · 0:33:04 · unknown (0.30)] Kirk Douglas ⇒ Eyes Wide Shut (the maker said so) · lineage · Kirk Douglas claims he handed Kubrick the novella during their Paths of Glory or Spartacus fights. · "Kirk Douglas claims he gave it to him during one of their like shared therapy sessions"
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:52:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] Gladiator ⇒ Gladiator II (the host's read) · lineage · Lucius's hand in the grain is a callback to Maximus's hand in the wheat. · "And it's an obvious callback to Maximus walking through the kind of afterlife feeling the wheat."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Eyes Wide Shut · 0:33:21 · unknown (0.30)] Ruth Sobotka → Eyes Wide Shut · lineage · Others guess Kubrick's Austrian second wife may have given him the Austrian novel. · "Maybe she gave it to him."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:47:12 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] Gladiator II ↔ Conclave · theme · Both films feel resonant with the election cycle without mapping neatly. · "the same way that conclave, which is like so heavily leaning into like, hey, isn't this just like this election cycle?"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Eyes Wide Shut · 0:33:31 · unknown (0.30)] Arthur Schnitzler ⇒ Eyes Wide Shut (the host's read) · lineage · The speaker says the novel is very close to the film, so close that its plot beats are nearly one to one. · "And it is very similar to eyes wide shut."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 1:09:25 · Chris Ryan (0.50)] Gladiator II ↔ Anora · theme · Anora's idea that there is no dream undercuts Macrinus's rise from nothing to the top. · "one of the key ideas of Anora is like, There is no dream."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Eyes Wide Shut · 0:37:01 · unknown (0.30)] Dream Story (Traumnovelle, the Schnitzler novella) ⇒ Eyes Wide Shut (the host's read) · lineage · The speakers note the film's credit says inspired by, not adapted from, Schnitzler's novella. · "It's not adapted from Schnitzler."
[The Big Picture · ‘Gladiator II’ Is Here. Are We Not Entertained? · 0:06:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Gladiator II ↔ Gladiator · craft · Gladiator II brings back the original film's cinematographer, John Mathieson, as part of a returning crew. · "The cinematographer, John Matheson, is back."
[speaker] Chris Ryan · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · A franchise and genre scholar who likes Jason, the early sequels, and Manhattan; attention to trivia, tropes and critic reception. Treats slashers as a canon with tiers. · stances: Parts 1, 2, 4 and Manhattan are the good ones; The series finds its legs at 4
[bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
[bits] The Rewatchables: Apex Mountain (The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits); Who Won the Movie (The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off); The Ebert review (Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show); Casting what-ifs (Who was almost cast, or who should have been); Most rewatchable scene (The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels); Aged best / aged worst (What holds up and what does not); Picking Nits (The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits); Double feature (The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick)

Recommend three to six films, and only films that appear in these lines. A series, a TV film, or a franchise counts too when a line recommends it or pairs it with Before Midnight; name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend Before Midnight itself. For each one, give one short reason in your own words and say whose reason it is: the show, named exactly as the brackets name it, and the speaker when the line names one (an "unknown" speaker is just the show). If the lines are thin, say so plainly rather than stretching them.

Keep a contrast a contrast. When a line sets two films apart, the reason is how they differ; never turn it into a way they're alike. A line with ⇒ puts the source first and what drew on it second, and one marked "the maker said so" is still the host reporting it: say who said it, and never state an influence as fact.

You know only what's on these lines. Add no fact they don't state: not who directed a film, not what kind of film it is, not when it came out, unless a line says so. Say nothing about the store or how anything rents here.

Talk the way a clerk talks to a customer at the counter: plain text, titles written plainly with no asterisks or other markup, no headings, no lists of more than six, no JSON.