Christmas, Criterion Style
Happy Holidays, indeed! The Criterion Collection has announced its December titles on its website, and the list includes a favorite of mine: Christopher Nolan’s Following. It joins an ever-expanding library of extraordinary feature film debuts: Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos, Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave, Akira Kurosawa’s Sanshiro Sugata, Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men, Steve McQueen’s Hunger, and many, many more.
It’s certainly a worthy addition. Like the very best First Films—the Coens’ lean, darkly-comic Blood Simple; Scorsese’s energetic, introspective Who’s That Knocking at My Door—Following plays as a mission statement of sorts; nearly all of Nolan’s favorite characters, themes, narrative devices, and stylistic choices can be glimpsed in this rough, mean, 70-minute indie masterpiece.
