Following: Clever and intricate Neo-Noir

Christopher Nolan's debut feature, Following, is amazingly clever, and its creation, nearly miraculous. The film that, with it's excellence, would come to open the doors for Memento, was shot on an estimated and hugely impressive budget of $6,000.

You take it away... and show them what they had.

Following, tells the story of a masterfully intricate noir style setup, which is already being built from early on in the film, but is so incredibly clever that you can really not suspect anything close to the actual outcome, until the very end. The film alternates between three different moments in the story, throughout its development, showing that Nolan's appreciation for parallel and non-linear storytelling, later seen in such works as Memento and Inception, was already part of him from the get-go. [...]

One could say that over the course of his career, Nolan's budget has slightly increased, but even though his films evolved accordingly, the subtlety of his art might be slightly overshadowed by the spectacle in more recent endeavors. The never ending attention to detail when writing a script, is apparent throughout all of his films, but there is a certain quality to his early work, that is greatly shifted with his entrance into the mainstream, in the post-Batman era.

In view of the film's short resources, Following is hugely dependent on natural conditions for many aspects, such as lighting, making extensive use of the already available illumination. The use of B/W film, to get the most out of the limited light, brings the movie stylistically closer to the classic noir films, but the approach that is taken, also grants it a unique identity.

As for the casting, we see unknown actors such as Jeremy Theobald in the main role of Bill, and Alex Haw as Cobb. They are alright, their work on the film is pretty neutral, without adding much nor deducting much, they satisfy their roles nicely, but without much grandiosity. The real strong points of the film remain its stellar script, and the production quality, considering the extremely limited but remarkably well managed resources.

What did you think of this great Neo-Noir? What do you think of the unfolding of Nolan's carrer? Share your thoughts in the comments bellow!