Too much of everything

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A debut movie of a great filmmaker is either a stinker ("Alien 3", David Fincher) or a statement that he is there to stay. ("Reservoir Dogs", Quentin Tarantino and "Following", Christopher Nolan). "Following" is a very well made film, considering the circumstances under which it was made. The film is, in fact, a rulebook or a template of future Nolan films. Most of his future movies can be found in "Following" in the sense that most of his future movies have - broken timeline and non linear storytelling making the movie more thrilling, crime or criminal-ish adventure, manipulation of people and a surprising reveal, that's either mindblowing or in the case of "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012), studio's insistence. This movie is a crime thriller. Keeping away the circumstances and knowing nothing about other Nolan films, it's very good. Not excellent, not great, but simply very good. The pacing of the story feels rushed. There is character development but the pacing is so quick that we do not have enough time to get invested in the characters. Some things about the protagonist are simply addressed in the story by the characters in it, rather than telling it dramatically. The fight scenes and some acts of violence are a bit poorly choreographed. However, the suspense was excellent and the twists were mind blowing. Consider now, that you have watched Nolan's other movies as well. The rushed pace was inevitable for a movie which wanted to deliver a lot, but had only an hour of runtime. The issues with fight scenes and acts of violence are still the same, however, we can get a clue of how things played out off screen when a character addresses something about the protagonist. It's like the future Nolan films made it better. If you've seen any of his future movies containing a theme of manipulation, it's quite easy to figure out. The awesomeness of the suspense and the twists are retained. At last, consider that you also know how this movie got made. Man! It was lucky even to see the day! A budget of $6000 during the 90s for British film? It's probably gonna be forgettable. It might not be as good as it was supposed to be if it got a made under favorable circumstances, but surely ain't forgettable. I don't find it appropriate myself, but this movie is a masterpiece - in the sense that an almost no budget flick was made to be so good! I have seen other almost no budget films like "A Fistful of Fingers" (1995 or so) made by Edgar Wright, and it was just plain bad for me. I would never watch such films ever again, except for this one and any other such film, if I find them in the future. It was my fifth Nolan movie. I watched all three of his Batman movies, and I absolutely loved the second one, the first one was excellent and the third one was just good. Then I watched "Memento" (2000) which made me a Nolan fan. But it was this movie that made me appreciate him as a filmmaker in the way I do today. Judging it in a plain manner, I would give it an "8/10" and an "A-". But, for the reasons explained in this review, it gets a special "10/10" and an "A+".

With the unparalleled filmmaking that the Nolan's have shown us so far this century, I was quite eager to go back and watch this, their first film. This is something that every aspiring filmmaker, particularly writers, should see. A budget that could have been funded by a few years worth of saved tips produced an engaging and interesting 70 minute film that surpasses the quality of some films with budgets exponentially bigger than its own. We have three actors that nobody has ever heard of, a shaky camera, and no marketing whatsoever, but the idea and the quality of work put into the film turn out a great product. Certainly it could have done with some better technical execution, but the story is there and 10 years later, the Nolan's are producing some of the biggest and best movies of all time.It's a very interesting narrative. You can tell pretty quickly that it bounces around, but it's not too hard to follow. I didn't get everything down, and don't remember exactly how the story all works, but most of it made sense at end. The black and white was definitely the right choice. It gave it a slightly dull atmosphere as grayscale tends to, but this was a small price to pay for the serious and gritty feel that came with it. Although color would have been nicer to look at, it would have thrown off the mood. The same goes for the strident music score. It sounds kind of ugly, but it's spot on for the mood. We get some pretty good acting as well. The Blonde gets easily the worst performance, but it's better than some of what we get from Hollywood actresses. Cobb and Bill's actors are both great. Alex Haw in particular is very natural as Cobb. The performances aren't outstanding, but they are impressive.Bill makes for a decent protagonist. We can see that he's smart, but Cobb is much smarter. What's more, Cobb is confident and doesn't have any hesitation, which gives him a distinct edge over Bill, whose intelligence is more of a strong curiosity. This curiosity is what drives the story and eventually leads to Bill's disaster. Once he realizes that the entire situation is much bigger than he understands, he panics. It's actually rather sad how helpless he is. It's kind of fun to think about whether the Cobb here is the same Cobb played by DiCaprio in Inception, but if they are then there must have been a lot that went on to change him from mean-spirited crimes to constructive ones in the twelve year hiatus.I think this is still on Netflix, so watch it now while you can. If not, it's free to watch on YouTube. If you like thrillers, particularly interesting ones, it should satisfy, though it's no Silence of the Lambs. It's a movie that's good to watch alone in one night. It's quite short, but feels longer than it is. You might get bored at times, but I would encourage you to watch the whole thing. Overall Rating: 8.4/10.

Before Christopher Nolan made Inception or The Dark Knight trilogy, he made Following. The story is of a young writer named Bill (Jeremy Theobald) who follows strangers for material. When one of his subjects, a thief named Cobb (Alex Haw) confronts him, Bill starts robbing apartments with Cobb. When Bill meets a girl (Lucy Russell) he starts getting involved in her life as well. Although not quite as complicated as Inception or Interstellar, Nolan's future traits are here, such as his non-linear story telling, and it's still a complicated story. It's a very well put together film noir. Nolan certainly benefited from beginner's luck. Although it's not as good as Inception, The Dark Knight, or Batman begins, I like it better then The Dark Knight Rises and Interstellar. It's an interesting movie and it's very well made for as small as the budget it. If you like Nolan's work, you'll find this pretty interesting.

The first indication of Christopher Nolan's genius for filmmaking.An unemployed young man has a strange pastime - following people. Nothing illegal or voyeuristic though. Then one day the person he is following, Cobb, catches him and confronts him. Cobb then introduces him to his strange hobby - burglary...Incredibly original, clever and intriguing. Starts fairly innocently enough but the tension ramps up the further you go. Great twists towards the end.Writer-director Christopher Nolan, directing his first feature film, shows an amazing confidence in his screenplay and direction, despite the limited resources at his disposal (apparently the film cost only $6,000 to make). Great use of back-and-forth time jumps, so that you get leaked the backstory, rather than spoon-fed it. He would take the time-jump technique to the extreme in his next movie (see later).The low budget does show up in the production values, but this doesn't hurt the movie much.Performances are mostly okay. I found Alex Haw a bit stiff as Cobb but the others are fine. While Nolan's debut film was intelligent and original, his next movie was even better. It was mind-blowingly brilliant - original beyond comparison with scenes in reverse order. That movie would be Nolan's finest and one of the greatest movies of all time (#2 on my all-time list) - Memento.