comparing this film to its predecessor, American film critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Before Sunrise was a remarkable celebration of the fascination of good dialogue. But Before Sunset is better, perhaps because the characters are older and wiser, perhaps because they have more to lose (or win), and perhaps because Hawke and Delpy wrote the dialogue themselves." In her review for the Los Angeles Times, Manohla Dargis lauded the film as a "deeper, truer work of art than the first," and praised director Linklater for making a film that "keeps faith with American cinema at its finest." Reviewing the acting, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone observed, "Hawke and Delpy find nuance, art and eroticism in words, spoken and unspoken. The actors shine." Philip French of The Observer wrote, On the merits of the script, A. O. Scott of The New York Times noted, it was "sometimes maddening," but "also enthralling, precisely because of its casual disregard for the usual imperatives of screenwriting." He elaborated, In the United Kingdom, the film was ranked the 110th-greatest movie of all time by a 2008 Empire poll. In 2010, the critics at The Guardian placed Before Sunrise/Before Sunset at number 3 in their list of the best romantic films of all time, and called the ending of Before Sunset "one of the most tantalising and ingenious endings in all cinema." Top 10 lists As noted by Metacritic, the film appeared on the following critics' top 10 lists of 2004. 1st – Village Voice Film Poll (94 film critics surveyed) 1st – Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com 1st – Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle 2nd – David Ansen, Newsweek 2nd – Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle 2nd – Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle 3rd – Ty Burr, The Boston Globe 3rd – Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle 3rd – James Berardinelli, ReelViews 3rd – Charles Taylor, Salon.com 3rd – Dennis Lim, Village Voice 4th – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times 4th – Michael Atkinson, Village Voice 4th – Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun 5th – Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle 6th – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune 6th – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly 6th – Jack Mathews, New York Daily News 6th – J. Hoberman, Village Voice 7th – Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader 7th – Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer 8th – Scott Foundas, LA Weekly 9th – Claudia Puig, USA Today 9th – Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle No order