Reviews & Ratings for
Doodlebug More at IMDbPro »

69 out of 80 people found the following review useful:
Rather obvious but effective enough for the short running time, 10 July 2004
Author: bob the moo

A man is trying to catch some sort of bug running around his room. He takes his shoes off and intends to crush it under the heel of his loafer. However as he slowly begins to track the bug down and trap it, things chance dramatically but the man continues his course of action. Before Nolan hit the big time with several successful motion pictures, he made this short while studying English at University in London. It is rather atmospheric and is enjoyable for that reason.

The plot is interesting at the start and has a nice twist at the end which is pretty obvious once you see it being set up, but this isn't too much of a problem because there are only a few seconds between set up and delivery, so you're not wasting time being led somewhere you have already arrived. It is very much a student film as it thinks it is cleverer than it is and it seems like the sort of idea you have when you think that nobody else would ever think the same way – but this is just an observation, not so much an attack.

In terms of atmosphere the majority of the film really works; grainy black and white, dark rooms with bright intrusive light spread sparingly across the room and 'things' moving rapidly around our main man. It does just enough to feel like it is building to something but not so much that the ending will be a disappointment.

Overall it is worth seeing mainly because of what its director has gone on to do since this. As a short film in its own right it is atmospheric enough and with an interesting premise to the point that it is worth a few minutes of your time; but the ending is not as 'out of the blue' or as clever as Nolan must have thought it was at the time – happily he has gone on to much bigger and better things since!

17 out of 24 people found the following review useful:
Good film short with insights into the human mind., 20 December 2009

Author: Roxysurfboards16 from United States

I think anyone reading this knows what literally happened as far as the storyline goes. In a dingy apartment, a guy that looks possibly insane, carries a shoe as a little black figure scurries across the floor. But what or who is this creature? Who is the man? I think the man represents the human condition. Man is constantly at battle with those who are lesser than us. We feel the need to conquer and thus we are the ones who pose threat to ourselves. The man hitting the small version of himself with the shoe shows abstractly the very thesis i just said. In hurting others, he really only hurts himself. (i am finding out while writing this that there are several morals or messages that the director wanted to portray, and i am doing none of them justice)

15 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
I'm cutting this film some slack....for what it was, it's pretty good, 23 February 2008

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The film begins with a guy chasing what you assume is a bug or perhaps a mouse in his apartment. However, when he catches it and you see what it is, it's an exact duplicate of him--only in miniature. When he smashes this creature, a chain of events follow and the movie ends.

Every director needs to start somewhere. You don't start your career with a mega-hit but work up to it. Despite having some big name films to his credit, such as MEMENTO and BATMAN BEGINS, Christopher Nolan was still a nobody when he made this short film a little over a decade ago. In fact, it's his very first film and so I think it's important to evaluate it as an experimental film done by a student. In this context, it's a pretty good little film--though I agree with Bob the Moo that what will happen in the film is a bit obvious. The style is excellent and the film is only three minutes long--perfect for such a film.

By the way, this film is part of the CINEMA 16: European Shorts DVD. On this DVD are 16 shorts. Most aren't great, though because it contains THE MAN WITHOUT A HEAD, COPY SHOP, RABBIT and WASP, it's an amazing DVD for lovers of short films and well worth buying.

5 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Humble Beginnings, 13 May 2012

Author: KrazzyDJ from India

A word of advice. Watch this movie straightaway without reading anything about it. Most of the plot summaries you'll go through will mostly end up ruining the movie for you. Its incredibly short (about 3 minutes) so even if it ends up sucking for you, it wouldn't have in any way hurt to devote 3 minutes to what I find a great start for a by now famous and master craftsman Nolan. Heck even a visit to the loo takes more time so giving 3 minutes to this movie without any second thought shouldn't be hard enough. Let the bug surprise you.

Doodlebug came to my attention when doing a bit of research (that isn't the right term but I'll stick to it anyway) on Christopher Nolan now that his final movie in the Batman trilogy is about to hit out. It appears he made two more shorts before this of which one named Larceny, I've heard a lotta praises about but sadly couldn't manage to get my hands on it anywhere. So I decided to started my Nolan filmography with this one. For the meager amount of money, this movie is quite a watch. Excellent camera-work, nice editing which keeps the movie flowing smoothly (and not much like Nolan's later non-linear works), good effects for a short (that's just me though) and a decent performance make this worth a watch. Now I don't exactly know what messages this movie wished to convey but I do know that those were some entertaining and insightful 3 minutes into what was to come in the future from this guy. Following's up next for sure.

6 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
An early short from Nolan, 30 July 2008

Author: Jack Freeman from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Fun, enjoyable, and simple. This is a very interesting short film made by Christopher Nolan, who is famous for not only reviving the Batman series, but for The Prestige, Insomnia, and my favorite Memento.

This film doesn't require much thinking or anything, which caught me off guard because Nolan is famous for making me think.

The entire running time is very enjoyable. The plot is simple. A man tries to exterminate an annoying doodlebug.

A lot of directors had to start somewhere, but unlike most filmmaker's early years, Nolan's short film is fascinating. The only thing that people complain about is that it becomes very predictable within a minute or so into it. That is true, however it then becomes a story of "Is he? I hope he doesn't do it." type suspense. It's a very enjoyable short that makes me wonder one thing. Where did Nolan get this idea?

As real as a nightmare. A good, eerily effective short for a mere three minutes., 26 October 2012

Author: Foreverisacastironmess from ukwitchcountry

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Why does this have to be some great metaphor for something? I just see it as a great little flicker of darkness that takes you on a brief surreal journey that plays off of the senses. To me this short's like a dark joke with the end being the punchline. You see a rough-looking man, he's hopping around a dank room, swatting at something we can't see, which soon turns out to be himself, which is needless to say, odd. Than you see that the miniature man is attempting to squish some kind of micro version that is smaller still. You notice that all three(and very possibly more)are all making the same gestures, and that those gestures are happening closer and closer together, just as a startling realisation enters the mind-POP! Short's over. Mildly unsettling. Those were my exact reactions when I first watched this-although I did actually watch it years ago but completely forgot all about it.(not good) I mean, the man: you have no idea if he's mad, a junkie having a bad trip(he was all sweaty and ragged), or is it his nightmare that we're seeing? I believe it's a nightmare becomes of how everything seems to culminate and converge just as it ends. Because, many times in my own dreams and nightmares,(of which I am eternally grateful to whatever unknowable forces there may be) I've felt a very strong and lucid sensation of my own scattered self and consciousness rushing together just as I wake up. I read somewhere once that everybody you meet in your dreams is actually you. So why was the guy trying to kill himself? Maybe he was just trying to kill the little parts of his personality that he subconsciously couldn't stand, and some bigger, deeper subconscious part of himself from the dark depths of his mind had a desire to swallow-up and erase himself... It was a kaleidoscopic effect, all was one and one was all, and a kind of visual sleight-of-hand. You're so busy looking at the little thing on the floor that you're not looking at where the magician's hands are going. Not seeing the bigger picture. I thought this short was a pretty cool, mind -bending idea that was very well done. Of course, being only three mins long its quality is limited. I've seen far better shorts-but never one quite like this. Thank you.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Prelude of a brilliant and promising career, 17 April 2012

Author: Rodrigo Amaro (rodrigo882008@hotmail.com) from São Paulo, Brazil

Calling "Doodlebug" as being Christopher Nolan's baby steps into filmmaking would be an outrageous act. This isn't a baby trying to walk, this is a kid already walking and aware of everything around him, skipping part of the evolution but ready to do anything. Light years from making us dream within a dream within another dream and way before of resurrecting the Batman franchise or twisting Leonard's memory, Nolan made this wonderful short about a man who hunts something unknown with his shoes to later find out he's hunting himself in a different way and form. What comes after might not be all surprising but it certainly leaves a great impression on you, to make you frozen thinking what the hell just happened.

The constant themes present on his works such as sanity loss (or the fight in discovering if you are sane or not) are there. He intrigues us in less than three minutes by showing this man (played by Jeremy Theobald) that seems disturbed by this moving thing he starts to chase, and even though he sees that this thing is him in a alternated version he kills it. Perhaps an allusion of us as human race, hunting versions of ourselves simply because they bothers us, by that I mean, humans, people who are born with the same constitution (flesh and blood) but with notable variations and characteristics. And that never ends.

It's really delightful to watch it, you can sense Nolan's incredible sense of style filming in a scary black and white and using some incredible special effects. The student knew exactly what he was doing, a real professional. Many of us, and even the man himself couldn't possibly imagine than in matter of just a few years he would be directing names like Guy Pearce, Al Pacino, Leonardo DiCaprio and Scarlett Johansson in outstanding pictures. Well, here's a positive proof of why this man is one of the greatest directors in activity at the moment and why he deserves all the recognition. His originality goes beyond anything. A real fun to watch. 10/10

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
More Of A Student Experiment Than A Real Short - But It Is Indicative of The Maverick's Style of Filmmaking, 25 July 2012
Author: sashank_kini-1 from India

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A distressed man has been trying endlessly to squash a bug that's bothering him. This chase continues till we find out that the bug is a tinier version of himself. When he kills it, a larger version of the man kills him in turn.

Christopher Nolan's effort doesn't amount to a brilliant shot in the sense that it's obvious (and Christopher isn't to blame) that the maverick had made this just to experiment with camera, lighting, sound and special effects. But it is indicative of the themes he has brought to his feature film: insanity, narcissism, never-ending cycle and twist endings. Also, Christopher's command over the camera is noteworthy – look how the camera shifts slightly while the character is in view to reveal a clue or an object. It would be rather futile to over-analyze this work because it is what it is; the first thing that you understand is what it is.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10

3 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
interesting movie, 6 April 2012
Author: Niku H. from Romania

a very good idea from the Christopher Nolan, man who creates legendary movies like BATMAN BEGINS, THE DARK KNIGHT or INCEPTION.

don't watch this for special effects !! This "movie" is a short one, 3 min long, but original in style and screenplay. It's not high definition, but it doesn't matter anymore. Look at FOLOWING or any other movie made by Nolan, this man likes to play with human emotions and fears.

Waiting the next movies of Nolan :)

PS: you will find this one on the internet. Nolan it's a genius of words and original ideas. I didn't know his movies are so original until i saw PRESTIGE, this and BATMAN MEGINS, a few years ago. Will be greater than Peter Jackson or "the master" Steven Spielberg. Without spoilers, i have to say this is the most refreshing short movie.

15 out of 40 people found the following review useful:
Genius, 16 April 2010

Author: inna-kachler from Netherlands

What a talent! Christopher Nolan is really genius! Music, clock, emotions, cloths, story - this is the Oscar-worthy performance! I really wonder how movie companies could produce movies of such a low quality of the creative potential of some directors is so high. Either they measure public taste so low, either they are blind! More movies like this - and we are, the public, are bought completely! I really compare his performance as a director, writer and Creator and can not find a serious competitor! Money, fire, kisses and cry are not the most interesting part in the movie. You could put a bit touch of talent - and with a miserable budget have top quality performance!

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