Cool.

It doesn’t look like Following at all, but rather Memento: The black and white picture, looking into the mirror (even one where he wakes up with a with a classic black phone on his head with a deep breath), the noting of what he does and where he is to understand his situation, the character’s monologue (including him being self-aware and noting it, “here I am talking to myself”, or “I don’t know where I’m going to be once I fall asleep (in Memento it’s “wake up) is essentially plagiarized out of the Memento-script) in which he explains his problems and intentions, the camera, “where’s my wife”, a girl that claims he has taken care of him and that she will be there to take care of him (in Memento it was the Matrix-chick), the suspicious characters in his life, the constant close-up of the same everyday-objects (showerhead, clock, etc.), his miserable joking of his condition, his feeling of disproportion (“this is never going to stop”) , the driving, the character always wearing a suit, the introduction with different pictures fading as a Polaroid-photo that fades, the title that is used as a portrayal of his condition, despite being a description meant for an object. All this I managed to see in the course of not even 2 minute! And I haven’t seen Memento for 2 years! Fuck, this film is gonna bomb!
The only place he departs from Memento is when he finds out that someone has orchestrated this for him, and that it is a “lesson” (ok, there is no point arguing, this is kind of Memento too…), which reminds me of The Game and It’s a Wonderful Life, two mediocre films, that are basically halting through the process because of the ridiculous moral-theme (even Oldboy managed to completely turn the table to become a terrible film, despite the fact that it’s “twist” was negative rather than positive, because of this) they encompass.
Another element is the horror-mystery thing, which really doesn’t fit in at all. Both the fonts and the creepy atmosphere reminds me of Goosebumps.
Can’t say I’m surprised. Dear Zachary was a terrible documentary (I still remember the amateurish/childish techniques, like the 1920’s bad-guy music that played in the background once the ex-wife was on the screen). The trailer is short, but still manages to use the same joke (“you mean it was yesterday”, “actually it was two days ago”) twice, and the main character has one face-expression during the entire video! And the “messenger” being a little girl with pigtails? COMEONE! This film is doomed to fail artistically. Not just because he will (probably unlikely, as Christopher will laugh his socks off while watching it) get his ass sued by Nolan, but because it looks worse than something even I would make.

This film really is a shitpile of shitty shit. I’m sorry, but someone had to say it.

>>”It seems sort of like Memento meets The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, although the low budget, black and white aesthetic reminds me more of Christopher Nolan’s Following.”

I’m sorry but I don’t understand? So Memento wasn’t black and white and low-budget?

I saw it at the Phoenix Film Festival last week and it was pretty good. It was my first Kurt Kuenne film so I’m pretty interested in checking out Dear Zachary now. I’d love to hear you guys discuss it so maybe a review when it hits VOD?

Sorry for the double post, but also didn’t remind me of Memento at all. More Groundhog Day mixed with Its a Wonderful Life.

looks like a big heaping pile o’ dog doo.