Following

Rating:
Summary: Add me to Chris Nolan's growing 'Following'
Review: Wes Anderson made "Bottle Rocket" for no money, and then followed it up with the critically lauded "Rushmore". Darren Aronofsky made "Pi" for no money, and then followed it up with the critically lauded "Requiem for a Dream". Richard Linklater, Guy Ritchie, and Tom Tykwer, some of my favourite filmmakers working today, have all followed this formula for success.

Add Christopher Nolan's name to this list. Before making the critically lauded smash "Memento", he hunkered down and wrote an engrossing script, raised a minimal amount of capital, cast some amateur/non-actors, found some cheap black and white film, and took to the streets guerrilla-style to complete his first film. What we get is the engrossing neo-noir of "Following".

And we also get a kind of proto-"Memento". Nolan, in what some may call a gimmick, again utilizes an irregular story structure to tell the tale of a lonely man caught up in extraordinary circumstances. The story, complicated enough if it were told straight (more on that later) is divided into three acts. The trick is that all three acts are told simultaneously; a scene from one follows a scene from another, which follows a scene from the third. The effect is somewhat jarring: protagonist Bill (or is it Danny? Or, as the credits denote him, The Young Man) sometimes has long hair and a goatee, sometimes sports a short haircut and a clean suit, and sometimes shows the cuts and bruises from a brutal beating. All within consecutive scenes. Fear not, for there is a method to Nolan's madness. He does his best to play fair with the audience, to provide them with visual clues so they can tell where they are in the story. Nolan, as he later would show with "Memento", is a masterful puppeteer, controlling all the limbs of his story with skill and precision.

Populating the disordered order of "Following" is a small cast of unknown actors, many making their first and only screen appearances. Jeremy Theobald plays The Young Man (he also co-produces; the director's commentary track notes that 'Jerry' was responsible for location scouting, on top of playing the lead). He's got low-key appeal, essential for essaying a loner looking for any human contact he can muster. Bill has taken to picking out a random person in a crowd, and following them around, ostensibly to gather character information for his writing, but more likely in the hopes of creating an imaginary friend. When one such 'friend' catches him in the act, Theobald does a fantastic job of showing Bill's discomfort, and then his gradual easing into the situation. Cobb, the friend in question, is a hyper-confidant thief, played with slimy charm by Alex Haw. Haw is great at showing Cobb's malice, his untrustworthiness, as well as the plethora of reasons that draw Bill to him. He's got a toned-down Richard E. Grant quality about him, although less kinetic and manic. Lucy Russell, as The Blonde, is really nothing more than that. Russell does fine showing her femme fatale-ness, but really brings little else to the role, including the desirability that all the characters keep insisting she has.

"Following" is a quick (67 minutes) slice of urban isolation. You feel for Bill as he spirals down deeper and deeper into a web of intrigue. And the discerning audience member will appreciate having to pay attention to a plot that gives you all the clues you'll need, but never holds your hand. If you've done your homework, and been alert the whole time, the ending will leave you mouth agape.

NOTES ON THE DVD

The DVD is jam-packed with goodies, mounds more than a movie of this magnitude would normally deserve. I guess Nolan took every post-"Memento" opportunity to shed light on his little-seen first feature. I think it deserves all it gets.

Nolan's commentary track focuses on his knowledge that he'd never have any money to make this film, and how that knowledge affected everything from the script he wrote, to the way he lit the film, to the choice of using black and white, to the actors he used and they way they rehearsed, to the locations. It's a very thoughtful commentary, full of useful tidbits for other first time filmmakers. Nolan's monotone delivery can be somnolent at times, but he's so smart and precise about what he's saying you can easily overlook that and become engrossed in the content.

Using the alternate angle button on your DVD player allows the viewer to see the current page of Nolan's shooting script while the movie is running. It is interesting to see where changes were made, and to figure out why. Often budgetary restraints were the deciding factor, but some changes were made to tighten up and improve the storytelling.

And as a neat little toy for those with an insatiable curiosity, the DVD comes with a feature allowing you to restructure "Following" chronologically. Its main benefit is that it proves that the film's modular structure is not merely a gimmick, but amplifies the intensity and dynamic tension of the story.

"Following" can be a tough sell for some; its grainy (but gloriously shadow-intensive) cinematography and bare bones approach to acting and scenery are a far cry from big-budget Hollywood. But it is still an engrossing work, one that, like its younger sibling, rewards repeat viewings. I've seen it three times now, and am still amazed at the bang for his buck that Nolan achieved.

Rating:
Summary: Great precedent to Memento - 4.5 stars
Review: When I saw this movie by Chris Nolan ("Memento") another director and another couple of movies came to mind: Darren Aronofsky's "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream." In a sense "Pi" served as an experimental platform to develop some of the concepts and storytelling style for "Requiem for a Dream," just like "Following" has done for "Memento," definitely one of 2001's greatest movies. The timeline of "Following" goes back and forth, much in the same way as "Memento" but gets to a point where it is a little more predictable. However, you will highly enjoy it, I'm sure.

Christopher Nolan has already got in the works another movie, this time as director only, starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, called "Imsomnia." A double-reason not to miss it, just like you shouldn't miss this one.

Rating:
Summary: Poor man's Memento
Review: Year 2000 saw the suspense thriller MEMENTO starring Guy Pearce, wherein the uniqueness of the script resides in the fact that the plot unfolds from the end and proceeds backwards. FOLLOWING has somewhat of that same flavor, though not so engagingly or cleverly done.

In this film, Jeremy Theobald plays Bill, a young Londoner addicted to following people - not with any malicious intent, but just out of curiosity. After a period of initial confusion for which the viewer might be excused, it becomes apparent that scenes from three timelines are being depicted. There's the present, in which Bill is telling an interviewer (lawyer, psychologist, police official ?) the genesis of his current situation, beginning with his practice of following strangers. There's the relatively distant past, in which Bill is confronted by one of his quarry, Cobb (Alex Haw), a sartorially elegant house burglar, who befriends Bill and includes him on his capers. Finally, the relatively recent past, in which Bill is dating The Blond (Lucy Russell), one of the pair's victims that isn't what she appears to be. The first clue I had that three timelines were running intermixed was Bill's facial appearance: scruffily bearded and unkemptly dressed, well dressed and clean shaven, and the latter plus a bruised face.

The plot twist, when it finally comes, is sufficiently unexpected to raise an eyebrow. However, unlike Pearce's Leonard in MEMENTO, the characters are all so universally unattractive that it was hard to care when the patsy among them took the fall. Also, the director's decision to photograph in black and white added nothing as far as I was concerned; color would have sufficed. Blessedly, the run time is only 70 minutes. Perhaps they were on a shoestring budget.

My advice - rent MEMENTO instead.

Rating:
Summary: If you like Memento . . . see this too
Review: You can really see how this was the precursor to MEMENTO in that he uses the same device of telling the movie out of sequence and gives you the surprise ending. Otherwise it has a very low budget look shot in B&W with English actors that are sometimes hard to understand, but its quick 70 minute length means that it never gets boring.

The movie is about an unemployed writer that starts following people because he's bored. After tailing a thief for a while, the thief realizes that he's not a cop and decides to take the follower along on some break-ins. Told so out of sequence that you piece it together little by little, the follower follows and starts dating the girl whose house they broke into.

The DVD had a decent commentary, and a feature that lets you see the whole thing in sequence. This is like watching a touted ballplayer in his rookie season, a lot of promise and rewards to come.