Following (from quite a distance)

I've now caught up with your blogs through about mid-May, and here's what I have to say so far. I loved Cabin Fever; I enjoyed and appreciated Hostel. There was not only a nice structure to the film; it also played around with horror tropes in some unique ways, clearly building on what Roth started in CF. I'm disappointed he hasn't done anything really noteworthy since. I think he's a talented and knowledgable director who has a wonderful tongue-in-cheek mentality that's great for horror.

I had seen Following before but forgot all about it until maybe halfway through. I like the ending a lot, because both times I found myself in the shoes of the protagonist and I love that feeling in a film of having the rug pulled out from under you. I like trying to figure out if here's any way out of his mess, and I like thinking about how he got pulled into the whole mess and whether or not he could have avoided it. The protagonist is an interesting character and I find myself wondering about him and who he is, and what's going on with him psychologically that he was able so easily to be pulled from being so passive to being so active and involved in his criminal behavior. And that he was able to be duped so easily. He makes me think that I should be vigilant and deliberate in determining for myself what lines I can and cannot cross and not wait for the pressure to be on in order to decide what's right or wrong for me. The protagonist of Following was so desperate for human connection that he used poor judgement and got himself in a fine mess. And see how Nolan, from Following to Memento to Batman is so very interested in these detached characters who long for connection but because of their self delusions end up going about getting it in all the wrong ways.

Batman is mentally ill. We all know that, right?