Doodlebug

Great atmosphere, interesting story and pretty good execution by Chris Nolan who later will become one of the greatest directors of all time. Kind of an origin story ;)

Doodlebug (1997)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Christopher Nolan's directorial debut was this three minute B&W short. The film starts off with a man on the floor bouncing around trying to kill a bug with his shoe. He tries and tries to kill it but soon we realize something else is going on.

DOODLEBUG was a highly effective short that reminded me of the early work of David Lynch. The B&W cinematography perfectly captures a rather dark and moody atmosphere and I thought it certainly helped the film and its nightmare like quality. I'm not going to spoil the twist for those who haven't seen the film but I found it to be very good. Technically speaking this is a very impressive short and especially when you consider it was the first one Nolan had made. It certainly shows that there was a talent behind the camera. Fans of his should get a kick out of this film.

The short has a nice style, mysterious, eerie, noir ish. But I'm not completely engaged by the story or any kind of metaphor going on

I never heard about someone, who after watching this short by Nolan didn't have smile in his face. This movie is just masterpiece among the short movies (I watched plenties) and very inspiring according to fact that on the scene is just a man with a shoe and he's trying to catch something.

In this movie Nolan shows us that, he can really grab our attention. And play with our emotions like he does in many other movies, like a true genius and all he needs is just 3 minutes.

Interesting fact is that Nolan was also behind the camera which is very rare according to the Following which was the last movie he shot. And I personally like his camera.

Yet I would also mention that the soundtrack is made by David Julyan who made soundtracks for another Nolan movies Following, Memento, Insomnia and The Prestige.

So I would recommend Doodlebug to everyone who is Nolan fan, who likes Kafkaesque movies and basically to everyone who likes movies, cinematography and dynamic short movies.

A man in a white shirt seems obsessed with killing an insect. He moves around, fixated only on this one thing. When he finally corners it, things get really weird. This seems to be an experiment on a single note, but because it is over and done with so quickly, we don't have time to be too critical.