Oldies Spin: Following

Following

It’s a general joy for many cinefiles to look back the early work of a beloved filmmaker. It’s nice to see where that person’s humble beginnings were and to see how their talent first showed and played to an audience and eventually grew into the refined sense that we see today. In this case, it is Christopher Nolan, a filmmaker who by no means if infallible, but is certainly a man I trust with some risky decisions because I’ve witnessed time and time again them pay off. I’m a fan of this filmmaker; some might even go so far as to call me a fanboy, which is a title I don’t even shy away from. Even still, this was the only film is Nolan’s catalogue that I had not seen. Having finally caught it, I can see the strands of DNA that I recognize in his later films. And like many of those later works, I enjoyed this one very much as well.

This is a very low-budget, guerilla filmmaking style that centers around an unnamed young man (Jeremy Theobald), a London loner who has an obsession with following random people on the street. One man he follows makes him and confronts him. The man is Cobb (Alex Haw), and he’s a thief, of sorts. He breaks into people’s houses more for the fun of distorting their lives rather than monetary gain, and he draws the young stranger into a complicated web of deceit, fortune and a twisty end to it all.

If you’re a fan of Christopher Nolan, then you’ll certainly see how this can be an early start for him. Even though it’s a lot less polished than his more recent films, there’s still the essence of his ideology. The script still likes to play with the timeline, an ambition he’s been departing from lately, and there’s a lot of playful entertainment value to his style. He even includes the patented Nolan uniform: a clean cut suit to show the world that you don’t have to be a distinguished gentlemen to dress like one. Even though he’s often the victim of usual low-budget filmmaking, as clearly evident by his only barely visible job as DP, he still manages to make it all work, culminating in a pretty solid debut.

If there’s one major point to take the film down, it’s in the acting, particularly the lead. For some reason, Nolan has had a habit of having his lead be the least interesting character, but the actor he chooses usually knows how to make it work. That’s not the case this time, as Theobald is far too reactionary and bland to make an impact. Haw is a little better, but his charm might be just do to the fact that he’s playing a character with the same name and similar occupation as DiCaprio’s in Inception, and seeing the genesis of the character is helping the performance.

It’s actually a little strange to watch the film because since Nolan has become such an established player, it almost feels like a low-rent rip-off of his later work. Still, that’s not uncommon (look at where Tarantino has been then look at Reservoir Dogs). This isn’t a flawless masterpiece; hardly any Nolan film is. And there are limits to how ambitious it could be with the budget and circumstances. However, that doesn’t matter, and probably presented the challenge to make an even better film. This is still a great gem in the Nolan crown: it’s smart, witty, entertaining, and at barely over seventy minutes, quite quick. If you’re a fan of his, then I’m guessing you’ll appreciate this freshman effort as well.

B+