DVD Review: Following - The Criterion Collection

The 1990s were quite a fertile period for shoestring budget, independent filmmakers. Those were the years immediately preceding the widespread and relatively inexpensive availability of professional high definition video gear. Back then, the only way to make an indie film with a prayer of being distributed was to shoot it on film. The Brothers McMullen, Clerks, and El Mariachi are just a few of the better known examples of 16mm no-budget films that launched productive careers (for Edward Burns, Kevin Smith, and Robert Rodriguez, respectively).

The Criterion Collection has just issued the ultra-low budget debut of another auteur who would go on to receive massive acclaim after starting his career as a guerrilla filmmaker. Christopher Nolan’s feature-length debut, Following, first appeared at various film festivals in 1998. Two years later, Nolan would take the art-house world by storm with Memento. The non-linear storytelling exhibited in that film is also the technique employed to keep viewers guessing throughout Following. The film was shot in black-and-white with handheld 16mm film cameras (operated by Nolan himself), resulting in a gritty, grainy, authentically noir-ish look.

The unnamed main character is a twentysomething aspiring writer (Jeremy Theobald) who has developed the habit of literally following strangers around, observing their behavior. Ostensibly he’s gathering material for the characters in his stories. But considering the young man is an isolated loner, his voyeuristic tendencies seem to also stem from a desire to make connections with people. One such person he follows, a rather smooth fellow by the name of Cobb (Alex Haw), confronts him in a diner after noticing he’s being watched. Nolan’s dialogue is razor sharp as the uncomfortable meeting unfolds. It turns out Cobb is a burglar, a philosophical one at that. Sure he steals things from people’s homes, but his stated reasons go beyond material gain. He aims to make these victims appreciate what they once had by taking it from away from them.

After the young man accompanies Cobb on a home invasion, he develops a taste for the lifestyle. After all, this is even more intimate than merely following people from afar. He can get right in and rummage through people’s stuff. He cleans up his scruffy image and begins pretending he’s someone else, someone closer in persona to his new mentor. But he’s out of his depth, especially when he becomes involved with a blonde woman (Lucy Russell) whose apartment he has robbed. Her ex-boyfriend, a local organized crime figure (Dick Bradsell), is threatening to go public with her explicit modeling photos in order to keep her quiet about his criminal activities. She wants the young man to secure the photos and return them to her.

Article Author: The Other Chad

My name is Chaz. A former co-worker (Dave) always misheard my name as "Chad." Complicating matters was a third co-worker, who was in fact named Chad. So Dave habitually called me the "other Chad."

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