Doodlebug is a short film, clocking in at just around three minutes long, and it details a guy tracking a mysterious bug through his run-down apartment only to get more than he bargained for when he finally discovers the truth about the bug. It’s in black & white with no dialogue at all and would be of exactly zero interest to anyone if it hadn’t been written and directed by a twenty-seven year old Christopher Nolan back when he was, by his own account, just making silly little films like this every weekend with his friends. So, yes, here’s where I reveal that I’m starting a trip through Nolan’s filmography and will be reviewing them all in the coming weeks, all except Dunkirk which I reviewed back when it came out. Despite the fact that, prior to starting this project, I’d seen everything he’d ever done post-Memento, Dunkirk is apparently the only one I’ve written a real proper review of. So, starting this project, only a couple of things I hadn’t seen and this is one of them, the only one of his short films to get an official release. It can be found on the Criterion edition of his debut feature, Following, which we’ll be talking about shortly. It’s probably also online, but I watched the Criterion release. Is this worth watching? Not really, unless you’re doing a completist project. I mean, at only three minutes, it’s not a waste of time exactly, but neither is it really anything at all other than just a short joke. It’s a curiosity at best, though I have to admit that I did laugh out loud when one of the very first shots of the short is of a clock ticking. Nolan’s fascination with time has literally been there from the beginning. Anyway, this is an inauspicious beginning, but strap in: we’re about to have some fun. 2 stars.
tl;dr – short is notable only as curiosity, one of Christopher Nolan’s earliest films; at only 3 minutes, it isn’t a waste of time or particularly bad, but neither is it really worth watching. 2 stars.