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Open Windows

An inventive, gleefully manipulative techno-thriller

The desktop kind. This inventive, gleefully manipulative techno-thriller opens with a nerdy blogger (Elijah Wood) waiting for a dinner date he won with the actress object of his fanboy obsession, when a menacing, all-knowing voice from his computer starts telling him what to do.

The found-footage-ish gimmick here is that the entire movie takes place on his laptop screen. It’s compulsively watchable for a while, but ultimately the clever plot twists stack up to the point where the gimmick becomes unsustainable, and I found it difficult to maintain the desire to keep up. Final twist almost insulting. Japanese title: Black Hacker. (100 min)

Don Morton

Don Morton has viewed some 6,000 movies, frequently awake. A bachelor and avid cyclist, he currently divides his time between Tokyo and a high-tech 4WD super-camper somewhere in North America.