Wizard-8 In yet another case of filmmaking coincidence, "Open Windows" shares the same idea as another movie made around the same time ("Unfriended") - that idea being a "live" (or "real time") movie seen almost entirely through computer screens. This effort goes a step further by eventually getting the characters out and moving around, which I admit does help prevent the movie from getting tedious. There are certainly some creepy and suspenseful moments, though I have to admit I found them mostly in the first half of the movie. Eventually, the movie gets really hard to swallow, with some really unbelievable revelations and actions by the various characters. And when you start to think about the movie after watching it, you'll be able to realize some additional plot holes. Also, the French accents of several characters are so thick that their dialogue is really hard to make up at times. Despite these problems, I admit that I was never bored by the movie, but all the same I felt unsatisfied at its end. "Unfriended" did it better despite being cheaper and less elaborate.

lovaszi-peter It was the first movie I've seen from Nacho Vigalondo, and probably not the last one, his work was very impressive. I can't say that about the actors. We have Frodo, a porn star and someone with a massive London-accent.I wish it wasn't true but... I loved the storyline, something unexpected happened often enough to keep your eyes on the monitor, it had an interesting perspective, but acting was forgettable. I still enjoyed it. It was built up, we had breaks, even if it looks like there is no cut in the whole movie. You'll not feel any emotions for the actors (and it's not because of poor acting), but will definitely find interesting how technology could be - or it's much more scary: how technology is nowadays. I do not recommend it for any woman unless you are a nerd, you will be bored and will not even understand what's happening and why. If you are a man you will still not understand these thing, but will carry you away.

gavin6942 A jilted fan (Elijah Wood) soon finds himself pulled into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse after he accepts the opportunity to spy on his favorite actress (Sasha Grey) via his laptop.This film has a strong beginning, showcasing a film within a film. In actuality, that film may be even more fun than the movie we end up seeing! What can be said for sure is that Sasha Grey is really blossoming; this role seems appropriate for her, and one might be surprised she was not cast as "herself". Knowing her background, she seems a prime target for stalkers. Her recent contributions to horror ("Would You Rather?") and science fiction ("The Scribbler") have been wonderful, and hopefully she continues down this path...Elijah Wood as a creep seems to be something he has been honing for a while. Some of this is evident in "Sin City", and it comes to the fore in "Maniac". Here, it sort of comes in on itself. He is given the opportunity to be the ultimate creep and rebels against it as much as he can. (Of course, there is a plot twist here and there.) The film is genius in its use of technology, and the way it twists and turns. Is it realistic? Of course not. But very, very clever. Unfortunately, it does tend to run long, and a good edit here or there might have made a huge difference. What could be a fast-paced film has plenty of slower moments.Rue Morgue magazine calls the film "Hitchcockian voyeurism meets cyberbullying" and Preston Fassel writes that the film is "eerily prescient" given its timing around GamerGate and sexism in the online gaming community. Writer-director Nacho Vigalondo consciously tried to keep the genre boundaries blurred. He succeeded, which may alienate some audiences.Despite the slow points and a filming style (through laptops and webcams) that is a bit hard to follow or enjoy at times, this film still deserves a solid rating for what it set out to accomplish and what it achieved. No doubt many other films in the future will try similar things, but it may be a while before anyone else succeeds to this degree.

JoeyCunninghamLennox I was attracted to this movie after hearing a brief description of format. The entire movie is seen via a laptop screen the central character web-chats and inadvertently spies on others via surveillance cameras and other technological methods which do not necessarily exist yet.This sci-fi aspect to the movie is probably my biggest quarrel with the movie. Though the technology was not so far-fetched as to be difficult to comprehend, I felt that it was a bit of a cheap considering the challenge the writer set himself in making a feature length movie observes exclusively through a monitor. Maybe it's my fault for going into the movie with this idea in my head, but I would have much preferred to see how a story can be told in this way without having to complicate things with technology which is currently beyond us. The movie is commendable for its invention and there are some genuinely tense and exciting scenes, in particular the car chase/getaway scenes which given the way the movie was shot, are unlike any other you may have seen before. Considering the prominence of web-chatting in many of our daily lives, I think there is room for others to attempt something else using this format. I would love to see some form of intense drama unfold using only Skype conversations and private messages - perhaps something reminiscent of the way this was successfully done entirely through a car telephone in Locke.