The Following – Christopher Nolan - Now known as Mr. BACKWARDS MEMENTO, INTELLIGENT BLOCKBUSTERING, INCEPTION-DREAM WITHIN A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM WITHIN A BATMAN RENAISSANCE, Nolan…this film was back where it all started. His first feature is a low budget and inevitably amateur (in some ways) tale of many twisty turny twists, following the life of a writer who gets deceived into a life of crime. What is interesting is how clear, even from this formative and raw stage, Nolan’s characteristics are. Prefigured in this film is the predisposition for ambitious narrative ploys – see Memento, the violence and noir-like leanings – Dark Knight etc – and the twisty turny twisting of Inception and probably The Prestige (though I haven’t seen it – hence the ‘probably’). These field notes of directorial development aside, the film itself – taken out from the ‘Nolon context’- is fairly shaky. Scenes are overcrowded with theatre-like dialogue, actors struggle with acting, the black and white feels uninterestingly used except for providing immediate shorthand for ‘noir’ and, in the end, it is hard to invest much in the characters and story when they are subject to so many stumbles. 6/10
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