Netflix: Oh hell yea!
Pick: D-Dog
Mark: Even now I stand by the fact that the worst anything Nolan's ever done can be considered good by all standards. And I thought this was interesting, though a bit mindfucking at points. I had some gripes, but what would I be without my gripes? Probably less sarcastic. And you?
Dylan: Well, everyone knows Christopher Nolan these days. For the Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, and The Prestige. The only others are Memento, Insomnia, and Following, I think. And I find it interesting to see how quickly the production values of his movies skyrocketed. There is Following, which is like a low-budget indie film with no-name actors. Then Memento, which is a bit more mainstream. Insomnia, with Robin Williams and Al Pacino. And right after that you get Batman Begins. The guy is super talented, and it shows in his storytelling. This movie was pretty awesome, and stylistically it’s very similar to Memento, in that the timeline jumps around and you have to really focus at first to keep things in order. All part of the way Nolan likes to reveal what's up his sleeve and keep you guessing. And best of all, it’s neatly short. A little over an hour. So it’s an interesting mystery that doesn’t require a lot of time or characters to unfold.
Mark: Yeah and I think the time frame is one of it’s greatest strengths. The fact that the movie is so short means that everything that happens on screen happens for a reason and is not there to pad out time. And along with the storytelling, things seem like they don’t have a point at first, but as you watch the film unfold, Memento-style, everything clicks into place and you get a real sense of understanding. Things are revealed early, but it’s not until later do they make sense. My one complaint is that at first, you can get a bit lost in the time jumps. But then that adds to the general mystery of the characters and what’s really going on. And yeah, the production value shows it’s indie origin, but it never really hinders it in any way.
Dylan: What did you think of the black and white? Was that just to set the mood of classic noir? I found it slightly annoying at times, because there were a few somewhat dark scenes. But between the B&W, the cheap camera/sound equipment, and the unrecognizable actors, this movie kind of throws you off your guard. And it definitely helped set the tone for me watching it.
Mark: I thought the B&W worked well for the feeling of noir, being that we’re looking into a darker aspect of the human mind; what people think of while committing crimes. It also helped, in some cases, to keep the focus squarely on the actors, since nothing else could grab our eyes. This did also obscure some things, but those moments were rare. As to why he did it, it’s really because this film wasn’t just cheap, it basically had no budget at all. It took him a year to complete, as everyone he worked with had full-time jobs and could only work on Saturday. All the light he used was natural, since he had no equipment beyond a few handheld cameras. So the black and white was very clearly a financial necessity. But it shows his skills as a director, that he can really overcome these issues and create something this compelling in both the writing and directing.
Dylan: Well that answers my question about who these actors are I guess. Did you recognize them from anything else? Or are they just like Nolan’s college buddies? Anyhow, I thought they all did very well. I mean it was a cast of only four people (five, if you include the police officer at the end). It was almost like a play. And yea, for the money that went into, I think it’s a brilliantly well-done film. Not to say that it itself is brilliant. But talk about making something fairly awesome out of nothing at all. Christopher Nolan is not one of those guys who needs an enormous budget to entertain. He knows exactly how to tell an interesting and unique story. On a side note, I also found the main character’s ‘addiction’ pretty interesting, as well as Cobb's methods of burglary. I kind of want to go follow people now.
Mark: I feel as though nowadays if you end up following someone, you’ll likely end up getting beaten or something. Unless you go full-ninja on them, then you’d be fine. But as for the actors, they weren’t actors when Nolan brought them on. He found Jerry Theobold first, he plays The Young Man (he doesn’t have a name; that’s all he’d credited as) and then Jerry brought on his friends from college who acted in plays with him. So really it is quite amazing how intriguing the characters are and how you get invested in them now knowing that they didn’t have much of a background in acting. I found Cobb really interesting. When they’re in the apartment, and he’s talking about why he does what he does, it’s fascinating. Also, to add to the budget thing, all the homes belonged to friends of Nolan.
And can I just say, the one moment when you see on one of the doors a Batman insignia, it’s kinda funny. Knowing where he goes from here.
Dylan: Hah. Maybe Nolan is like Pixar, where he puts a little clue about his next movie into each one. Who knows? He is kind of a genius (with the exception of Anne Hathaway). But on that same note, don’t you find it strange that Leo Dicaprio’s name in Inception is also Cobb? And he’s a thief of...thoughts or...dreams....or whatever.
Mark: True, it’s not surprising that he’d use something from his past. But I think the best thing to take away from this is just the fact that it doesn’t matter what Nolan has to work with, he can make do and make something compelling.
Dylan: It's very impressive. I don’t have much else to say. This was a pretty good movie. Definitely a good example of the starting point of a great director. You can’t really say this for many filmmakers, but Nolan started out very good, and has only been pushing the boundaries since.
Mark: He is one of the few directors that when he’s got something new in the making, I’m genuinely excited about it.
Dylan: Got any trivia?
Mark: Two of the three main actors reappear in another Nolan film, albeit as walk-ons. Take a guess which film.
Dylan: Hmm. Well, Memento didn’t have a very large cast either, that I can recall. I don’t know. I’d guess Memento or...Inception (because they are in Europe for a while).
Mark: [buzzer sounds] Batman Begins. Round two. Care to guess which were the two characters: Cobb, The Young Man, and/or the Blonde?
Dylan: Ouch. Uh..Cobb and The Young Man.
Mark: Half credit. The Young Man and the Blonde.
Dylan: Got anything else to say? This is the part where you set me up for a snappy ending.
Mark: Hmm, I thought that would have set you up well. But at the end of the day, this was a very well done indie film by a great director at the very beginning of a career most of us know very well. So it’s definitely worth a viewing.
Dylan: Would it be douchey if I ended it with: “I gotta go. I just got into grad school. I don’t give a shit about this blog anymore. You suck.”
Mark: Well there you have it folks, our apparently last review as a duo. Tune in next time for the ramblings of just me. Same place, same random time.
Dylan: I’ll be cropping myself out of the Twitter profile pic asap.
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That joke about grad school would have made more sense if more of our conversation was up here. I just happened to receive an acceptance letter at the time that Mark and I began our little dialogue, and I threatened to leave. But not to worry, I'll be sticking around for another several months. Not that it matters, since it will be years before anyone actually reads this blog anyway.
In conclusion, we both enjoyed Following. So go watch it. As that guy from The Prestige says, "It's been a long time since I've seen real magic."
Oh and we're not sure about our next film yet. Check our Twitter for updates, @backrowcritics
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