Following (1999)

Following is a relatively small movie about an aspiring writer (Jeremy Theobald, above) who follows people for fun, and ends up aligned with a daylight burglar named Cobb (Alex Haw) — the only named character.

Now on the Criterion Channel, it’s a fascinating watch because of how many of its elements end up in later Nolan films. The Blonde (Lucy Russell) feels like an early influence on Tenet‘s Kat (Elizabeth Debicki), though both recall Hitchcock’s icy blondes. The black and white of Following will return in Oppenheimer, and the time-manipulating elements appear in almost every Nolan film that isn’t about Batman.

Most amusingly, the main character has a Batman sticker on his door — six years before Nolan’s Batman Begins.