**THE CAWPINE OF ‘FOLLOWING’**

WRITING: 7
ATMOSPHERE: 6
CHARACTERS: 5
PRODUCTION: 6
INTRIGUE: 5
NOVELTY: 6
ENJOYMENT: 6

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**The Good:**

Christopher Nolan's low-budget debut feature is a fascinating look inside the mind of a future major player within Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. Despite its low production values, the story of Following already features elements that will later become staples in Nolans' films, such as protagonists with unusual professions or fascinations; memorable dialogue; nonlinear storytelling and a multi-layered plot. Especially the way how a seemingly dull and unimaginative plot slowly turns into something much more complex and sinister is classic Nolan and feels very ingenious even in his very first feature.

The acting isn't particularly memorable or interesting, but the dialogue is pretty sharp and well-delivered most of the time. Jeremy Theobald ranges from a bit stiff to fine, while Lucy Haw is probably the most natural of the actors. Christopher's brother John Nolan is great in a minor role as a police officer.

While the technical side of the film is hardly up to par with Nolan's later work, I like some of the quick-cut editing and shaky camera work that give the film a grounded look.

The eerie, howling score used in several scenes is an effective mood-setter, almost giving those scenes a Hitchcockian atmosphere.

I love it how the script initially makes no sense, but how you come to realize that some of the seemingly non-related scenes must be from another point in time, and how the nonlinear structure of the story slowly opens up to you as the pieces of the puzzle begin coming together.

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**The Bad:**

Despite many memorable pieces of dialogue, the very dialogue-heavy script also contains long and clunky conversations, and I’m not sure if that’s down to the writing or the acting.

There's a strange, cheap-sounding thriller film soundtrack oddly spread out over several sequences where they don’t seem to fit. Interestingly though, some of that music closely resembles the soundtracks herd in most later Noland films.

This film never opens up to me properly. It's two guys talking to each other about pointless things and breaking into random people's homes. Somewhere, there is a deeper level of meaning with this, but I just cannot find it.

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**The Ugly:**

So there was a criminal named Cobb before that other criminal named Cobb. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...

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**CAWPINE RATING: 5.86 / 10 = 3 stars**