FOLLOWING [1998] review

Last week I saw Christopher Nolan’s latest, INCEPTION, but I had never seen his debut, FOLLOWING, so I put it to the top of my Netflix queue.  I tried to avoid reading anything about the plot or story, and assumed that the plot would twist time, etc., which it did.  Like most non-Batman Nolan films, you would be hard pressed to describe it in a single sentence.

Although the movie was definitely not feel-good, I ended up really liking the very low frills, low budget aspect of the film and Nolan’s choice to use black & white.  Besides writing and directing, Nolan also did the camera work himself.  If like me you saw INCEPTION first, you will immediately recognize the names of one of the main characters of FOLLOWING, Cobb.

The main character is Bill, someone with not much to do who decides just to follow random people one day to see what their days are like.  I thought that sounded like a great way for a loafer to spend time and a clever starting point for a movie.

There are three distinct story lines, which you can distinguish by Bill’s appearance.  They are twisted together, but in the correct balance of providing clever story telling, but in an understandable way.

FOLLOWING is a movie that almost demands a second viewing because of both its plot twists and its very short 82-minute running time.

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