Christopher Nolan's "Following" Review

With this review, I have now seen all of Christopher Nolan's directorial work to date, including his black-and-white examination of paranoid psychosis in Doodlebug, which is a 3-minute short film I highly recommend.  Look for it on YouTube.

In Nolan's feature directorial debut, Following tells the story of an aspiring writer named Bill (Jeremy Theobald) who randomly follows everyday people, examining their habits and personalities to use for source material.  But when Bill meets Cobb (Alex Haw), the first person to confront him about his following, the latter decides to take Bill under his wing, teaching him the ropes of burglary.


I found the plot to be very original and the characters to be fascinating and multidimensional.  Deciding exactly what genre Following is is sort of a toss-up.  It's like a dramatic thriller with neo-noir elements that concludes like a psychological thriller.  We've got the flawed hero (Jeremy Theobald), the femme fatale (Lucy Russell), and a very loose grip on who the villain really is.  I won't spoil the exact ending, but at first viewing, it reminded me of David Fincher's Fight Club.

There are lots of cool twists & turns, but I think Following suffers from being too nonlinear for its own good.  It's captivating, but it's also very easy to get lost even if you're paying close attention.  Like most of Nolan's other films, this one also demands several screenings.
I thought the use of black and white was cool in Following.  If the sound hadn't been as good as it was, you'd think this film had been made with 1940s technology, which wouldn't surprise me seeing as IMDb estimates the budget at $6000.

So while the plot gets a little lost along its own winding road, Following is still a rock-solid noir that adequately displays the promising technical skill of its then-budding director.  It further confirms my belief that Christopher Nolan is one of the most exciting filmmakers working in Hollywood today.

3 OF 4 STARS