An American in Bucharest, new in town following her ambitious husband Francis’ (Karl Glusman) promotion and unfamiliar with the language, Julia’s (Maika Monroe) days are spent people-watching both inside and outside the couple’s spacious apartment. Who needs cable when there’s a thin-lipped crackpot in the apartment across the way begging to make eye contact? The murder scene the couple happened across during an evening constitutional triggered Julia’s paranoia that gradually builds to a nerve-twisting late night confrontation on public transportation between watcher and looker. First time writer-director Chloe Okuno tries for a sinister Polanski vibe, right down to an abundance of seemingly well-intentioned albeit non-communicative tenants to add to the tension. For a film of this nature to succeed, it all comes down to a happy ending, a table-turning climax that finds our heroine guilty of the titular compulsion, not a victim of it. Monroe puts a fresh spin on an all-too familiar victimized heroine and Burn Gorman as “Watcher” is creepy enough to star in a Skelton Knaggs biopic. It all went smoothly until an eleventh-hour ploy strained plausibility in the name of contrivance. For full satisfaction, leave two minutes early and make up your own ending. (2022) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.