Following

Following was a pretty good directorial debut by Christopher Nolan. He got some nice performances from inexperienced actors, which is made even more impressive when you consider the tiny $6k budget and the fact that the entire thing was filmed solely on weekends because all the actors had full-time jobs. Nolan sure likes to mess with non-linear plot structures but used it to even better effect in his follow up, Memento. It still wrapped together really nicely though. It'd be cool if he returned to something relatively lower budget and similar to this later in his career.

Road to Oppenheimer: Part 1 In the months leading up to Oppenheimer, I have decided to watch all of Christopher Nolan's filmography and briefly give my thoughts about each one as a sort of preparation for his 12th directorial outing. It's often said that greatness comes from small beginnings, which is a phrase that I feel encapsulates my thoughts on this film quite well. Despite its minuscule budget and absurdly short runtime (68 minutes!), that special Nolan quality is still felt throughout every aspect of the film, from his signature twists and time dilation to his meticulously crafted characters and unfortunate low sound quality. The movie is also paced very well, with meaningful reveals and revelations keeping the story moving at a breakneck pace. Despite all of these qualities, Following suffers from one big problem: it's forgettable. While almost every Nolan film is remembered for some big action setpiece or an insane, mindbending reveal, Following kind of just comes and goes, not leaving much of an impression mere days after a first or second viewing. Of course, this isn't a film-killing issue, but when compared to Nolan's future filmography, Following certainly falls a bit short.