Following (1998)
Plot Summary: A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him under his wing. 
The film is very different from the scale and quality that we've grown accustomed to when it comes to nolan's work, but that is obviously due to the fact that this film had a minuscule budget of 6,000 dollars american. Watching this movie felt very much like Nolan though and it was apparent that he's drawn much of his inspiration for his more current films from here. There's an ominous character named Cobb who plays a sly thief like in inception and the movie has a nonlinear timeline much like memento. 
This movie is very hard to sell to a wide audience now because it is very much a character driven Neo noire and it's not the prettiest film to look at, in fact this feels like a project that could've been made by a student while in film school but that very well may be the case when it comes to how this movie came be. What we have here is an odd yet gripping story about a writer who befriends the wrong person at the wrong time. The writing is solid and serves it's purpose of telling an interesting story with twists and turns that will keep you thinking right until the end. The performances by the actors are sub par but that's not surprising and at one point during a scene which shows a scuffle between the two main characters it's kind of hard to watch since it's very poorly choreographed if at all but again this kind of thing should be expected. Like many of Nolan's films it seems the score is important to the feeling of the movie and although it's very raw and minimalistic the score here is fitting and gives the film an unsettling sense of urgency that I found wonderful. 
Now all this being said this movie is definitely not for everybody so I can't flat out recommend this. The film is slow to start but at just over an hour you wouldn't be losing much anyway. If you're interested in Nolan's roots I'd say check this one out especially since it's the only Nolan feature on Netflix right now.
Plot Summary: A young writer who follows strangers for material meets a thief who takes him under his wing. This movie is very hard to sell to a wide audience now because it is very much a character driven Neo noire and it's not the prettiest film to look at, in fact this feels like a project that could've been made by a student while in film school but that very well may be the case when it comes to how this movie came be. What we have here is an odd yet gripping story about a writer who befriends the wrong person at the wrong time. The writing is solid and serves it's purpose of telling an interesting story with twists and turns that will keep you thinking right until the end. The performances by the actors are sub par but that's not surprising and at one point during a scene which shows a scuffle between the two main characters it's kind of hard to watch since it's very poorly choreographed if at all but again this kind of thing should be expected. Like many of Nolan's films it seems the score is important to the feeling of the movie and although it's very raw and minimalistic the score here is fitting and gives the film an unsettling sense of urgency that I found wonderful. Now all this being said this movie is definitely not for everybody so I can't flat out recommend this. The film is slow to start but at just over an hour you wouldn't be losing much anyway. If you're interested in Nolan's roots I'd say check this one out especially since it's the only Nolan feature on Netflix right now.Rating: If you're a film buff and a fan of Nolan I'd give this a high matinee but for the general audience I'd say a rental.
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