For most of its short running time, Open Windows is riveting. It involves a nebbishy guy who runs a website creepily devoted to an actress who finds himself pulled, step by step, into and insane and disastrous crime.

The movie begins on Nick's (Elijah Wood) laptop. He is messaged then given intrusive software that allows him to spy on the actress. As the movie progresses he gets in deeper and deeper; he is complicit for taking that first step but then is simply caught.

The film is cleverly shot entirely through screens open on the laptop. I'm not sure how this would work in the movie theater but it works great on TV.

The movie was written and directed by Nacho Vigalondo, who specializes in elaborate twists, but after digging himself in deep in the first hour he can't find an elegant way to dig himself out again, and the last part of the movie is a long, convoluted mess that is like he was trying to get every twist ending he could think of in one movie.

I loved most of this movie, and would have rated it a 9 if it had all been as good as that first 70 minutes, but the last part is maybe a 5 or 6.

A final note: this would make a great video game. There's a fairly obscure adventure video game called The Experiment that involves doing everything through security cameras, and I would love to see something similar done with this.

Anyway, if you're a fan of Nacho, check it out. For all its issues it's pretty entertaining overall.

Another from the director of TIMECRIMES, one of my favourite Spanish movies and time travel movies in general. This one benefits from the casting of Elijah Wood in the lead role; he's one of my favourite stars since LORD OF THE RINGS and once again he's picked well choosing another low budget but quirky movie. The story starts off interestingly, like a riff on REAR WINDOW, although the idea of having it all take place through the medium of a computer screen is a little gimmicky. Sadly, the careful structure of the first half gives way to increasingly outlandish situations in the second, and realism turns into the ridiculous. The car chases become repetitive and the FX don't really work. A pity, that.

Nick Chambers (Elijah Wood) wins a dinner with his favorite movie star Jill Goddard (porn star-Sasha Grey). To his dismay the dinner has been cancelled. Nick is befriended by an on line hacker who shows Nick film from her phone and computer, essentially spying on her. The voyeurism, on which the film was hyped was short lived. Nick is drawn into a web of activity which centers on a mysterious man called "Nevada."

Sasha Grey shows us her boobs, something she has done in every movie I can think of except one. The film has us looking at a computer screen (open windows) for much of the film. And what was with taking black and white photos of a screen shot?