Following 1998

I knew I had to be on my game going in, simply because this is a Christopher Nolan film. Even at his earliest stage, there’s an expectation that structure matters and that attention is part of the experience. This feels like an unreliable narrator jumping across three timelines, either deliberately hiding something or simply incapable of narrating the story cohesively. The fragmentation feels intentional, like the film itself is playing a con on the audience. I'm constantly trying to orient myself, only to realize the ground keeps shifting under my feet. I like the twist. It’s somehow unpredictable. The ending works, but I wasn’t really shocked. Part of that is because I couldn’t fully focus while watching. I couldn’t fully lock in while watching, and the black and white presentation made it harder for me to stay engaged. This is the kind of Nolan film where the first viewing is pure confusion, and the second viewing is where things start clicking. You’re meant to rewatch it with the new information from the first run, and only then does the full picture come together. But Nolan himself often says not to overthink his films and just feel them. In that sense, being confused here actually feels correct. It mirrors how blindsided and duped the writer was by the con itself. You’re supposed to feel lost, manipulated, and slightly frustrated. Even though this is his first feature film, Nolan’s storytelling DNA is already very apparent. The obsession with structure, misdirection, and perspective and audience manipulation is already there. You can see the foundations of what he’ll keep refining in later films. For now, I’ll give it a low score. This feels like a film designed to change with familiarity, and I can easily see my opinion shifting on future viewings.