The Best Films That Take Place All in One Crazy 24 Hours: ‘After Hours,’ ‘Before Sunrise,’ and More
What comes “After Hours” but “Before Sunrise”? Well, one wild day.
The niche yet beloved genre of films that take place over the course of a mere 24 hours is a market all on its own. Sure, people fall in love over the span of a day (there’s a whole Netflix series titled “One Day” that hinges on that essential belief, repeated over and over again), and oftentimes even people fall out of love with their ideals over the course of merely a few hours, like in “Do the Right Thing.” Robberies take place (“Dog Day Afternoon”), high school is graduated (“Booksmart”), and even death sentences are doled out (“Cléo from 5 to 7”).
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The stunningly cinematic experience of having just the “one day at a time” phrase come to life onscreen feels as though it’s playing out almost in real-time. These adventures could be attainable, whether you want them to be or not. These heartbreaks, these realizations, and yes, even just this living from moment to moment, is truly what the inspiration of cinema is about. The one day conceit is so malleable that the Criterion Channel is currently hosting a collection of films that take place during one night, featuring titles as diverse as “Night of the Living Dead,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and “Before Sunrise.”
From director Richard Linklater, “Before Sunrise” ended up spurring a trilogy starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The mostly improvised films were made as a reaction to the bombastic nature of blockbusters, with Hawke recalling Linklater telling him, “I don’t want you to worry too much about the script. I’m inviting you to be a filmmaker with me. My whole life I’ve gone to the movies and there’s espionage and shootouts and helicopters, all this action. Everything that I see is all this drama, [so much so] that you would think my life, our lives, have no drama. That’s not the way I feel. My life feels very exciting to me and I’ve never been involved in a chase or a gun shootout. My life is exciting to me. And what’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me? Connecting with another human being…If we can put that onscreen I think people will care.”
Those connections, regardless of how big or small, are what makes the 24-hour movie the perfect snippet of humanity. See our full list of the best films that take place over the course of a day below.
With editorial contributions from Wilson Chapman.
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