Christopher Nolan's first feature film is a short one, coming at only 70 minutes. Yet with those 70 minutes, he can develop great characters and tell a better story than most directors who take more time. While Following is not perfect, it is pretty damn good. The story starts simple enough, but as the movie goes alone it gets a little confusing. Everything does become clear at the end of the episode, but there were moments where I did lose the thread of the story. This isn't necessarily a criticism, since the film isn't linear and so it's meant to confuse the viewer a bit. I felt that since it was black-and-white, the lack of colors confused me on who was on the screen at times and so it confused me more than it was supposed to. When the plot does finish, when it all comes together, then that's when you realize just how good of a story Nolan told and how he had set up everything almost perfectly for that ending (which I personally didn't see coming).
The characters themselves were pretty good. The character the film largely follows, the young writer, is nicely developed throughout the film. He starts out innocent, even unsure about the events of the plot, but he quickly takes into the lifestyle. He is never in control, as he's a puppet of the girl and the guy known as Cobb. Cobb is a fascinating character, one whom I wanted to spend more time with. He's the one who truly commands the movie, and the plot as well. His whole mastery at pulling all the strings simply was outstanding. While the female wasn't very interesting, that's probably only because she wasn't developed herself. In fact, I lost interest whenever she tended to appear until two-thirds of the way in when the film reveals a lot about her.
What's impressive is that the unknown, inexperienced cast of the movie managed to bring all their characters to life. The editing, even the sound effects, were all pretty impressive and Christopher Nolan managed to bring everything together rather nicely. Overall, this was one great film and even a classic in it's own right. Which is pretty high praise for a first film, but it can show why Nolan has become one of my favorite directors.
A