Open Windows: Staring at the World through a Screen

The movie starts in a bowling alley, and proves in the first few minutes that Spanish Writer/Director Nacho Vigalondo (TIMECRIMES) knows how to make a schlocky horror film. In this case, a film about psi attacks, the third in the “Dark Sky” franchise starring Jill Goddard (Sasha Grey from Entourage).

Watch for the glowing eyes.

It’s the fan appreciation sneak preview event, that’s also being live-streamed, which is how our hero uberfan Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood of Frodo fame), is watching the festivities. While watching he grabs screen captures for his website (www.jillgoddard-caught.com) dedicated to Jill Goddard. He’s waiting to hear from an organizer after having won a blogger contest for dinner with Jill.

Still waiting, he gets a call through his computer, from someone who knows more details about the contest, and how Jill is about to cancel. The voice, who identifies himself as Chord (Neil Maskell- Arby  from the UK show Utopia) sends him an unnamed link. After clicking it Nick discovers it’s one to security cameras for a better angle then the livestream.The next link is to Jill’s phone, camera, messages, incoming phone calls and all. Nick protests, but still watches. Then there’s another link, and another. Including a camera hidden in Nick’s room which can focus on the hotel room rented by Jill’s agent, which is where she turns up, instead of at the planned dinner.

For most of the movie, Nick is passive, mildly protesting more and more invasive surveillance levels, until he’s forced to take action to avoid detection. And, of course, then Chord has something to blackmail him with causing Nick to take extreme action after extreme action.

Then there’s another link he clicked on which brings on-line three people wearing odd glasses (similar to the fake movie’s glowing eyes) who address Nick as Nevada and they claim to be the second best hackers in the world, calling from Paris.

An yet not a single stream lagged at ALL!

So there’s several ‘open windows’ (Oh for a laptop that can stream that many items and still have BATTERY LIFE!) Nick starts driving around Austin, being guided from the laptop in the passenger seat.  Cavet – don’t think too hard about the tech side of how this is working.

Before the film, it was revealed that this film spend a year in post-production as most of the action is viewed through a laptop screen. Kudos especially to Elijah Wood as his wide eyed innocence is almost strong enough to sell Nick’s lack of backbone, at least until suddenly Nick takes control of the situation 4/5^th of the way into the movie. He also is rarely in the same room as any other actor, making his performance even more impressive.

Sasha Grey portrays an actress who’s bored with the rut she’s found herself in, both the roles and her publicly acknowledged boyfriend/director of the franchise. She wants something to change, and then finds herself hounded, and not just on line. She is smart, aware, and manages to upset the puppetmaster Chord’s plans, several times.

Speaking of Chord, Neil Maskell spends most of the movie as a disembodied voice. First he’s like the snake in the garden tempting poor Nick down a path he didn’t want. Once he’s hooked Nick, his tone changes to that of a demanding taskmaster.

So, is this a thoughtful intelligent film on celebrity culture, voyeurism, and the power of surveillance in our daily lives? No.

But if you’ve got a bag of popcorn and are used to watching movies on your laptop, why not give it a shot?