Following - 1998

"You take it away... to show them what they had."

Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) writes and directs this odd, claustrophobic neo-noir film about a seedy young Brit (Jeremy Theobald) who's obsessed with following people -- albeit harmlessly at first. After meeting a like-minded bloke (Alex Haw), the twosome graduate to breaking and entering -- but meet their match in a tough blonde dame (Lucy Russell) who may have dubious plans of her own.

This is Christopher Nolan's directorial debut with a feature-length film. He came up with the idea for the film because he had his home broken into and wondered what the people thought as they went around looking at his belongings.

MEMENTO - 2000

"Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts."


Suffering short-term memory loss after a head injury, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) embarks on a grim quest to find the lowlife who murdered his wife in this gritty, complex thriller that packs more knots than a hangman's noose. To carry out his plan, Shelby snaps Polaroids of people and places, jotting down contextual notes on the backs of photos to aid in his search and jog his memory. He even tattoos his own body in a desperate bid to remember.

The medical condition experienced by Leonard in this film is a real condition called Anterograde Amnesia - the inability to form new memories after damage to the hippocampus. During the 1950s, doctors treated some forms of epilepsy by removing parts of the temporal lobe, resulting in the same memory problems.

Antibodies - 2005

The psychological thriller is probably one of my favorite genres, and this is a worthy example.

Small town farmer and policeman Michael is haunted by the brutal death of a local girl and the mental games played by a recently apprehended serial killer who holds the key. Perfect casting, exceptional performances, and gorgeous cinematography make this worth watching. The film's thoughtful writing leads an intelligent viewer along a dark path and asks if they can recognize evil, or see the seeds of its infectious nature.