Sunday, January 23, 2011

Following

So this was an idea that was an enormous mistake. After seeing Inception, I decided to go back and rewatch and review all of Christopher Nolan's films. It seemed like a solid plan at the time, but difficulties with Netflix and my DVR held up the watching part and as usual I let too many movies pile up before getting down to write. Finally, here we go.

I decided to go back as far as I reasonably could without putting in any real effort, so the first full-length Christopher Nolan movie on the docket is Following. This was a movie I didn’t even know existed until the moment I looked on IMDB and saw that there was a movie prior to Memento. Better than that, it was available as a streaming movie from Netflix. Let’s see what the man started with.

Should I really be shocked that Christopher Nolan’s first movie is a black and white modern noir told through multiple points in time? Yeah that sounds just about right. Following may be short and sparse but this is definitely a Nolan story. It’s a male protagonist trying to figure out what is reality and what is a lie. Shit that’s every non-Batman movie that man has made! Following drills this down to the bone, because it is just the guy, the guy manipulating the guy, and the girl manipulating the guy. And since none of he characters are ever named, that’s the best I can do to explain it. Its all basic stuff even the “twist” at the end but it laid the foundation for what Nolan would do throughout his career.

I was hoping to go through the cast and see names that would end up returning in all of Christopher Nolan’s films. Sadly, not only is that not true but Following is pretty much the only thing of note for the three main stars. The two actors, Jeremy Theobald (“good guy”) and Alex Haw (“bad guy”), have no other real credits on IMDB since Following. They weren’t awful in the film, but at the same time I don’t feel cheated that there is no other work to track down for either of them. Lucy Russell is the main actress and she has an actual career even if she is not recognizable from anything else. Good for her.

Well, I guess that qualifies as a start. It is always fun to see where talented people began and Following does feel like a Christopher Nolan film. So the completist in me is happy.

7 out of 10

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