Following (1998) is an imperfect, but nonetheless brainy, existential take on film noir, which seems even more impressive considering its limited budget.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 12, 2024

For all the deadpan delivery of a committed cast, this is ultimately a misfire, but a fascinating and unusual one nonetheless.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 22, 2024

Following‘s short duration is a plus and adds to the suspense, while the plot revelations come at a measured pace, making each second of the film’s runtime count. Following is Nolan’s most underrated film and deserves wider recognition and praise.

| Nov 28, 2023

Somewhat meta in how a film writer voyeuristically finds his stories, and in some ways, you can see Nolan trying to find himself.

| Oct 17, 2023

…as with most of Nolan’s intricate, challenging films, Following turns out to be far more than the sum of its parts…

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 6, 2023

Nolan’s first film is a taut, tense example of the types of stories the filmmaker would eventually tell.

| Jul 20, 2023

If it didn't launch Christopher Nolan's career, we wouldn't be discussing Following but the film is a great example efficient DIY filmmaking.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 14, 2023

Before he became the auteur we know him to be, Christopher Nolan’s debut showed the talent that would come in the future...

| Mar 3, 2023

Here, though couched in existential ennui, our main character is also stealing in order to survive as an emotional being in a world that has far more grey areas than it does black and white.

| Nov 16, 2020

The film, compellingly written and directed, manages to be provocative in an understated way...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 22, 2020

The exchanges are frequently witty, marked by rapid cuts, and always fuel the story, which is told in director Nolan's signature style: out of order.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 13, 2020

Inessential, to be sure, but as an early example of... a fascinating early turn by a heady director first getting his metaphysical feet wet.

| Original Score: 5.7/10 | Sep 11, 2020

The lurid atmosphere of Nolan's early black & white films - his unsettling, hand-held voyeurism - lends itself perfectly to a young body of work which viewers enter through a specific POV, only to have the rug pulled out from under them.

| Aug 27, 2020

Following is a strong debut by a filmmaker who would go on to be one of the best in his field.

| Aug 14, 2020

Appropriately, the first shot in Christopher Nolan's feature debut is of a wooden box full of clues...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2020

Following certainly offers evidence to Nolan's now hallmark visual ingenuity - not only with the black-and-white photography but with the quasi-Hitchcockian framing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 5, 2018

Following shows the convenience and inconveniences of coexistence... [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 14, 2017

Besides the similarities in playing with time and structure, Nolan is already zeroed in on his favorite cinematic theme: obsession.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 20, 2012

a harbinger of things to come, an exercise in the kind of temporal gymnastics, sleight-of-hand shifts in perspective, and rigorous insights into the dark depths of human nature that have defined Nolan's later films

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 12, 2012

Entertaining, but material doesn't develop the full, edgy potential that similar paranoid-triangle efforts realized.

Full Review | Mar 26, 2009