Christopher Nolan’s Directorial Debut ‘Following’ Earns Certified Fresh Status Ahead of ‘The Odyssey’
Christopher Nolan has built a remarkable reputation in modern filmmaking over nearly three decades, with critics closely monitoring his Rotten Tomatoes scores alongside box office figures whenever he releases a new project. This level of scrutiny is typically reserved for his high-budget blockbusters that generate awards season buzz.
As ‘The Odyssey’ approaches its release, attention has shifted back to the beginning of Nolan’s career, well before the era of IMAX cameras and major studio marketing. His debut film, ‘Following,’ is a low-budget black and white noir shot on weekends in London back in 1998, using friends and family homes, along with natural light.
Recently, this scrappy debut received a significant boost in critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes announced the addition of fourteen contemporaneous reviews to the film’s archival page, allowing ‘Following’ to surpass the threshold for the Certified Fresh designation.
The film now boasts an impressive 87 percent rating based on a total of 89 reviews, a number that has steadily increased over time as older reviews have been incorporated into its official page. This growth reflects how the score has evolved, with ‘Following’ previously hovering around 80 percent with only about 20 reviews counted in the early 2010s.
To achieve Certified Fresh status, a film must maintain a Tomatometer score of at least 75 percent and have a minimum of five reviews from Top Critics. Limited release titles need at least 40 reviews to qualify. ‘Following’ comfortably meets both criteria now that its archival page has been updated with reviews from its original release that were previously unlogged.
This retroactive review update isn’t exclusive to Nolan’s debut. Rotten Tomatoes has been revisiting its archives to give older titles their due, recently doing something similar for the 1996 film ‘Independence Day,’ which also achieved Certified Fresh status after adding 77 contemporaneous reviews from its theatrical run.
For ‘Following,’ the timing is almost serendipitous. With ‘The Odyssey’ set to release soon and drawing comparisons across Nolan’s filmography, having his first feature freshly awarded Certified Fresh status provides fans with another point of reference in his already celebrated body of work.
The film has evolved into a cult classic within Nolan’s catalog, presenting a fragmented narrative about a struggling writer who begins following strangers and becomes entangled in a criminal underworld. This story employs the same nonlinear structure and thematic obsessions that would later define films like ‘Memento’ and ‘The Prestige.’ Although it runs just over an hour, the hallmarks of Nolan’s future successes are already evident.
Overall consensus has characterized ‘Following’ as a remarkably confident introduction for a filmmaker working with minimal resources. The recent increase in review count only solidifies how well this reputation has endured over time. Achieving Certified Fresh status more than 25 years after its release is a rare honor, highlighting the continued interest in Nolan’s earliest work.
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