Following

Most people now know Christopher Nolan’s name from his involvement with the Batman reboot. Others may remember him from Inception or Memento, where his scripts bent minds with their wonderful weirdness.

Following is his first ever effort at proper film-making. It features amateur actors who filmed their scenes while not at their day jobs, black and white footage and all filmed, written and directed by Christopher Nolan. In short, it comes across a bit like an ‘art house’ flick when you put it like that. But is it any good?

Yes.

Considering its minimal budget and lack of film-making expertise, it’s pretty damn amazing. If you can forgive the lack of Hollywood glitz and grainy, student-like footage, it’s a very compelling story which exhibits many traits which Christopher Nolan has used again (and expanded on) in his upcoming features.

It’s about a man who, needing inspiration for characters he’s writing about, starts following random strangers around London in order to get some idea what ‘normal’ people do. However, what he doesn’t bank on is when a suave thief who he follows catches him in the act and confronts him about it. Together they form an uneasy alliance and things take more than one turn for the worse. I’ll keep the plot vague as it’s one of those films that you can only really watch once and enjoy not knowing where it’s going. I’ll leave the surprises a surprise.

If you can put up with a film that’s very raw and rugged, devoid of anything vaguely Hollywood, plus you like a bit of a mind-bender which will have you guessing until the end, give this a go. Even if you completely hate it, it’s pretty short, weighing in at just over an hour.

Also, note the coincidental Batman logo on a flat door – a prediction of things to come?

If you are an aspiring writer you will understand the lead character's interest in people.

The film has an ambling pace which will not be to most people's liking. However, just as you've become accustomed to it there is an interesting change in plot and pace.

For what is is, a low budget film made on a shoestring, it's pretty good with an interesting script. It clearly marks the writer/director out as someone with promise. His subsequent film Memento bares some resemblance to this film.

this is not a film it is written word being narrated

looking at sheets of paper with someone speaking the words

cannot possible called a film

Stilted dialogue, poor lighting and direction, this weak attempt at film noir failed to engage me on any level. I thought it was truly dreadful and only watched half of it before giving up. There are those, however, who see it in quite a different light, I notice. What did I miss?

Interesting debut from Christopher Nolan. It has some of the devices he uses in later movies. However, I didn't find it entirely believable, I began to lose interest as the film wore on and the ending is predictable.