The Neighbors' Window (2019) User Reviews

look at this, not that

[ferguson-6 · 8/10 · 17 January 2020]

Greetings again from the darkness. Every parent with young kids has been there. That feeling of exhaustion ... a sense of frustration and being beaten down. It's not about loving your kids, because you absolutely do. It's simply the nagging feeling that your own self is slipping away. Your "fun" self is giving way to someone in the mirror you don't recognize.

With two young kids and a third on the way, Alli (Maria Dizzia, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE, 2011) and her husband Jacob (Greg Keller) epitomize the thirty-something couple described above. When a young couple moves in and proceeds to 'christen' their new apartment ... an apartment without curtains that is directly across the courtyard, Alli and Jacob come face-to-face with their reality. They are now adults whose 'wild' nights are fading memories.

Filmmaker Marshall Curry creates a believable and relatable situation - one that will have viewers either nodding affirmatively with how they react, or putting on some holier-than-thou huffiness trying to convince us they'd never stoop to this. The brilliant thing about Curry's film is that none of that matters. The point being made goes much deeper than peeping.

Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW is the most famous cinematic example of voyeurism, but in this one, Curry isn't trying to solve a crime or expose questionable behavior. Instead, he is displaying adulthood for us. It's a lesson in coveting the life of others. Most of the film takes place in an apartment, although there is a beautiful city lights shot when Alli steps onto the balcony. There is little surprise that this 20 minute short is Oscar nominated, since what begins with the bickering between two parents evolves into a life lesson most of us learn the hard way ... though perhaps not as hard as Curry's way.

One of the best short films ever

[Diablo1616 · 7/10 · 19 March 2020]

The Neighbors' Window is a short film which won the 2020 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Inspired by a true story, It tells the story of a middle aged woman with small children whose life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street.

The ending is surely gonna shake you up. Watch this beautifully directed Short Film, and I am sure everyone is going to love this as much as I did. Not to be missed

it's not always what you see

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 13 April 2020]

Marshall Curry's Academy Award-winning short "The Neighbors' Window" has drawn comparisons to "Rear Window". One can see the similarities. Overall, my interpretation of it is that what you can see doesn't necessarily tell the whole story. Meanwhile, the protagonists have their own problems to deal with.

This is the first of Curry's works that I've seen. I've been trying to watch a number of Oscar-nominated shorts recently; what else am I supposed to do during the coronavirus quarantine? I've liked every one of these shorts that I've seen, and I have no doubt that you'll like this one.

the other

[Kirpianuscus · 3 May 2020]

It is just a great film. Because it translates, in wise manner, very simple and precise, fundamental truths. Because it is a splendid perspective about the other. Because it explore basic realities with gentle eye. Because it is just...human in profound sense. Short, a magnificent film about family, neighbor life and about what we see from the window ..

The Neighbour's Window Is Better Than Mine

[MovieJunkie5 · 7/10 · 2 February 2020]

It slightly reminded me of Hitchcock's Rear Window. On one hand, it summarizes life pretty well, one minute you're having crazy wild sex not caring if the whole world is watching and then you blink and voilá, have kids, a house to pay, and your life becames monotonous and boring and it seems you're just waiting for death to arrive. On the other hand, you may seem you have it all, either kids, husband, house or parties, boyfriend and a house) but there's always something missing as nothing can be perfect in this world. I really enjoyed it. the story is good and well written and the cast have very good performances! Congratulations to Curry for yet another Oscar nomination and I recommend you go see it!

Must watch

[warren-91125 · 9/10 · 14 July 2021]

Great short film. One of the best I've seen in some time.

Will probably win the Oscar

[plasmasphinx · 6/10 · 5 February 2020]

I believed this was the weakest of the five Oscar-nominated shorts, but I believe this will be the winner. It strikes a lovely tone. The film is a familiar concept of voyeurism anchored by an amazing performance by Maria Dizzia. The performance by the husband, unfortunately, was leagues worse. The story plays out as expected and culminates in an unlikely (and corny) confrontation between two people from two not-so-surprisingly not-so-different worlds.

Amazing short movie

[ivanmessimilos · 9/10 · 27 November 2020]

Very nice and I would say a life movie. Strong point made in 20 minutes. Envy is a nasty thing, it turns out that the neighbors' grass is always green. In everyday life, it turns out that it is always too difficult for me (as an individual) and, as a rule, harder than a neighbor who has things we long for. The reason lies in the fact that in our own lives we always concentrate on negative things and emphasize them, we take everything good and positive for granted. We look at others the other way around, we only see the good things that happen to them (as a rule, we mirror our own lives as well as the family couple from the movie). The wife and husband long for the "freedom" they (probably) had as young people, without much responsibility and obligation. Now with three children they have to turn more to the other and serve him, and put themselves last. Of course, this is very difficult, a man always tends to satisfy his needs first and feed his belly. The director wisely used resources that were practically non-existent because most of the action took place in the apartment, we learn everything from the dialogue and even some things from the silence while looking at the neighboring apartment. We also see how time passes, the woman is pregnant at the beginning, she carries the child in her arms in a minute, and later her clothes change. The final shot itself impressed me greatly. Perspective turns, and they are "just" a plain window through which others can observe them. I immediately got a completely different movie. A film about a young (married) couple who find out the unfortunate news that their husband is seriously ill and that they only have a few more months to live together. They try to live normally, but something quickly reminds them of the gloomy reality. The family puts extra salt on their wound across the street. They look at two adorable children, see that a third is on the way, see a caring mother who gets up at night to take care of a baby, sees a father who takes all three children, takes them outside so that the mother can get some rest after sleeping only four hours at night. They see something they long for deeply, but they will never be able to get to it. The only downside to the film is that this is a short film, I realized I had a problem with that. They're just too short for me and I'm always missing just a little more to get better depth and a wider picture. Great message of the film and I have to admit that I recognized myself in the role of the main family. I always watch everything that happens badly and negatively to me, and at the moment I forget all the great things and blessings I got, and maybe someone really longs for it. To imagine deeply.

Heartwarming, great perspective from a window...

[jkt2006 · 7/10 · 13 June 2020]

Totally deserves the best live action short film Oscar for 2020. Its heartwarming and well made. Beautifully filmed more like with the budget of a regular Hollywood film or just well filmed maybe but it wins your heart instantly with the human story. The ending has a surprise which again is heartwarming rather touching. Just saw it on Amazon Prime.

Amazing short film

[Brittany224622 · 10/10 · 11 November 2021]

I don't get people who say this isn't Oscar worthy it is. What makes this short so good as it's simplistic filming style, that feels very real. The story of how we all thing everything is greener on the other side, yet it's not. This could also be seen as a metaphor for social media, we see only a sample of some one's life from the outside, we see the good. But behind everyone's life story is something sad. I loved how this was done. Ending was not what I had thought was going to happen.

The Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

[Screen_O_Genic · 7/10 · 22 June 2020]

One night a couple spy on their neighbors enthusiastically doing the deed and they're naturally transfixed and amused. Life goes on but the woman can't get her eyes off her seemingly better off nearby residents and armed with binoculars continues her journeys into voyeur land. With the passing of time reality kicks in and the balance of life sobers the woman into awareness and insight. This is an uninspired but watchable short that paces into an anticlimax straining for its moral message. Winner of an academy award this is a spinnable and insignificant finger-tapper in cinematic brevity. "Count your blessings"!

A 7.2 rating !?!?

[Christianchancellor · 9/10 · 20 November 2020]

This was pure perfection, the whole time I knew it was only 20 mins and wanted a whole movie. It was a short film at its finest. Beautifully shot and editing. I loved every single minute of it.

I could only really appreciate it during the lighter moments

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 10 February 2020]

"The Neighbors' Window" is an English-language live action short film from 2019 that runs for slightly over 20 minutes and took home the Oscar last night. It was probably not the very best year for the category this time as there was only one nominated film (the Belgian) that really stood out for me and this one here is probably in 3rd place when it comes to my ranking of the nominees. It may have helped the film that it was the only American entry in the English language. The writer (who adapted the Diana Weipert short story) and director is Marshall Curry and usually in this category, most of the filmmakers are rookies, but the opposite is true for him. He has 2 Oscar nominations for full feature documentaries already and another for documentary short, but last night was his first for a live action movie (even if it is not entirely fictitious). You can really structure this film into two parts. I am hesitant to say "halves" because the first "half" was much longer. At the center of the film, we have a couple around the age of 40. They have three children and the magic is kinda gone and stress is very dominant in their lives. As we find out about them, we also find out that there is an apartment nearby that has new tenants (D'Onofrio fans will understand the Oscar-related reference) and they are the exact opposite. Not only are they living quite the life that consists mostly of sleeping and amazing parties with many friends, but also their sex life is as good as it gets as we find out they make passionate love all the time and don't care one bit for the neighbors to see them. It is definitely not meant in a provoking way. The latter also results in the most frequent running gag in this movie, namely the voyeurism component coming into play and the two not so passionate protagonists keep watching what the neighbors are doing. Just out of curiousity and jealousy though and not really for any creepy reasons. They certainly wish they could be a bit like them again. Especially the female protagonist grabbing the binoculars to see what exactly is going on made many people chuckle during my showing.

However, things do get more serious eventually as we find out that the male neighbor returned with his hair shaved after a considerable period of absence and everybody in the audience understood much more quickly than the characters from the movie that it must be cancer. There is not much time wasted afterwards as we see him in bed struggling and how his friends come by to bid him farewell as the illness is killing him. So obviously all the envy the older couple may have had early on is gone now, even if the longer the film goes, the more it focuses on the female protagonist, simply because she is at home while her man is working. No bigger reason than that and it also seems the husband lost more and more interest in the neighbors eventually, especially compared to early on when they almost seem to make sure they get home in time to see what is going on in the neighbors' window. The big emotional highlight (at least in theory) of the movie is the scene outside when we see the deceased being taken away and the female protagonist comforts the deceased's significant other. It was okay closure I'd say. However, I really struggled with the idea that the widow now starts elaborating on how they thought what amazing neighbors they had as they knew about the kids and everything, so they were basically watching them too, at least occasionally, the other way around. Tables turned. This did not feel too realistic to me. They seemed to have no connection. They did not invite the others to only one of the many parties. They did not know anything about the young kids. And most of all, their eyes (or binoculars) never met while "spying" on one another. I mean it must have happened at some point in the past, so the idea of the two women somewhat having a connection was not one that made too much sense to me. Of course, I don't know how much happened in reality here and how much is fictitious, but I did not like the final scene that much. Nonetheless, technically and story-wise it is a decent achievement overall. I really liked how they managed to get the audience involved and managed to show us that we are just as much in the voyeur spot as the protagonists as we were much more curious about what is going on in the neighbors' window than what is going on in the apartment with the two 40-year-olds. I guess this applied to pretty much everybody in my showing and it seems it also applied to many Academy members who went for this one. Overall, I give it a thumbs-up, but I think the Oscar nomination was enough. The win is a bit exaggerated. That good it is not. Still watch, already for the pretty cool "Gettin' jiggy with it" reference.

Weak and Uninspired

[gassydabber · 3/10 · 12 February 2020]

First off, this was the weakest Oscar short this year, so that likely contributes to my "meh" reaction to it.

This is just a movie about a middle-class couple with several kids living in an American city, longing for the child-free lifestyle exhibited by their neighbor. A naive story pulled from Diane Weipert (boy life sure is short! it took my neigbor's death to remind me of that!) with its ending changed by Marshall Curry (they never talked to their neighbor/the neighbor didn't know of the family's existence-- but sure, we'll make this about you), twisted into the silliest message we're all aware of: time short. embrace the now.

Duh.

No introspection about whether they should've had that many kids if they're that consistently miserable. No noticing that they have it pretty good if they're able to afford that place that close to the city. No thinking about how other people have their own problems all the time, even if they're not in front of you in full display like animals at a zoo.

So picture this whole story unfolding... ending... and then go into literally any of the other Oscar nominated movies that didn't win: maybe the true story about girls burning alive in an over-crowded orphanage run by abusive guards and dismissive government, or the one about the woman in an abusive relationship barely making it away with her life, or the father who accidentally reported his son to the authorities for thinking he'd joined ISIS.

And then remember that THIS uninspired, disconnected, naive sludge of a movie got the Oscar instead. Let's just be done with them already.

Rear Windows

[Cineanalyst · 7/10 · 27 February 2020]

Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" (1954) is one of the most ingeniously reflexive films ever made, so not surprisingly it's inspired a good number of imitators and deviations. Hitchcock's own "Vertigo" (1958) is something of a continuation and inversion from an allegory for spectatorship to filmmaking. "Blow-Up" (1966) and "The Conversation" (1974) took the formula in different directions, while others, such as "Body Double" (1984), besides other Brian De Palma films, "The 'Burbs" (1989), "Disturbia" (2007) and "Wakefield" (2017), along with this short, "The Neighbors' Window," are obviously similar to the form of "Rear Window."

In "Rear Window," James Stewart's character was our surrogate spectator on screen, who was watching the film-within-the-film that were the activities of his neighbors, as seen through his apartment's rear window. This inner film followed a typical Hitchcockian suspense scenario involving a suspected murder and a blonde in peril, along with various subplots as seen through other neighbors' windows, including the sexual voyeurism in regards to "Miss Torso." "The Neighbors' Window" begins with such voyeurism, too, as the middle-aged parents sit in rapture at the 20-somethings across the way having sex. After that, however, the picture follows more in the line of indie movies obsessed with intimate tales of relationships and familial drama, and it's made by a documentarian, Marshall Curry, who seems to similarly be focused on such personal narratives.

As in "Rear Window," which played around with the cinematic gaze, there's a nice twist here, too. Our main surrogate spectator, the wife and mother, reveals herself to her neighbor's gaze and interjects herself into the film-within-the-film. Moreover, this reveals that she, too, has been an object of the neighbors' gaze; she, too, is observed through windows--is in a film-within-a-film.

You'll get involved

[cekadah · 10/10 · 13 February 2020]

A 20 minute story with an impact! The dialog is minimal and the 'neighbors' are never heard. But the emotional impact of what you watch covers a vast spectrum.

This short film is all about envy, emptiness, and empathy. Watch this expertly acted and crafted story. I had tears at the end.

Quick thoughts

[matgene · 7/10 · 2 February 2020]

I've listened to the Radiolab podcast and I think this short could have been pulled off much better. A couple notes:

• Comparison is the thief of joy
• Everyone is one moment away from their worst days of their lives
• Extraordinary stories are everywhere, your innocuous neighbor isn't so plain and boring upon second examination

WOW

[abdulmalekismailrostam · 10/10 · 10 February 2020]

Please watch it. You really deserve to see it. All of these only in 20 mins just wow I'm really amazed

The Neighbors' Window

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 17 March 2024]

Maria Dizzia and Greg Keller play a couple who are looking out of their apartment window one evening when they notice some rather raunchy goings on across the street. Rather than close the blinds and mind their own business, they gradually become enthralled in the antics goings on. It's not just the sex - they have three kids of their own so that can hardly be a shock - but their general behaviour and their parties that seems to captivate them until I felt like a rather prurient voyeur. Then, when she is at home on her own one afternoon she witnesses something that compels her to cross the street and meet with her opposite number. It's an interesting premiss but the acting isn't really up to much nor, more importantly, is the writing. It seems determined to contrive disharmony amongst the oglers only for them to rather timidly make up, or to realise that they are both addicted to their doses of this real life stop opera unfolding nearby - latterly with the aid of some binoculars - that reminds them of their own younger lives. This is really quite an unremarkable drama and I guess the moral is - shut your curtains!

Lifetime in twenty minutes

[rasheed-hr9 · 8/10 · 15 February 2020]

Lifetime with all its difficulties, distress, is told in just 20 minutes providing a lifetime lesson so great

The Neighbors' Window - ***1/2 out of *****

[unclejeff · 7/10 · 24 February 2024]

This Academy Award winner for Best Live Action Short Film was not at all what I was expecting considering the title and synopsis. In its mere 20 minutes, we feel like we get to know the main character, well played by Dizzia, on a rather personal level - more so than many feature-length motion pictures. She loves her husband and children but is just needing something more outside of her role as wife and mother. Even if it's just the excitement of voyeurism. As I said earlier, this is not what you're probably thinking, and I wouldn't dare ruin the unexpected journey this short film takes. Suffice it to say, at the end, you may find yourself not only surprised but moved. It's nothing groundbreaking or revolutionary, and I won't be thinking about it in the weeks and months ahead, but I enjoyed the time I spent with it, and it succeeds in what it's trying to accomplish. Those who have experienced the overwhelming fatigue of family life will likely find much to appreciate here. And relate to. - Jeff Marshall,.

Reflections of days past

[chong_an · 8/10 · 9 February 2020]

This could easily be call Front Window. There are 2 couples living across the street, both without window coverings. The story is told mostly from the viewpoint of a 30-something couple, with twin toddlers and a new baby. A 20-something couple moves into the other apartment, and are having uninhibited sex and parties, which makes the older couple nostalgic about their former days. But as a year passes, the situation changes.

I like and recommend this short, but the missing piece about WHY the situation changed gnaws at me, hence I am giving it only an 8.

manipulative

[mbrcf · 4/10 · 31 December 2020]

I thought this pretty unimpressive to be honest, the technical aspects are basic, the story is predictable and obvious and it seemed pushing and manipulative towards drawing a certain emotional response. It wasn't bad but I'm there there are way more deserving films our there to be awarded and recognized.

A classic

[drewcollins-89195 · 10/10 · 10 February 2020]

The Neighbor's Window is an Academy Award Nominated short film directed by Marshall Curry. The short film showcases a story of two different lives. One being an older couple that is probably at the middle stage of their life and their whole world revolves around their kids. Their fun is seemingly drained and the couples sexual spark has all but vanished. The other being a new couple, seemingly at the height of their lives. They move into a brand new apartment, they are probably in their early 20s and they have their whole life ahead of them to have fun. However, tragedy strikes for the young couple as the husband dies from cancer. The two families, who live across the street from each other look into the other's window in a voyeuristic stunt which leads to both parties having jealousy for the other.

The Film Lingers, Heartening Reflection

[michaelschilf · 9/10 · 11 February 2020]

Marshall Curry's Oscar winning short is a well crafted film. Beautifully shot, we experience the neighbors' eventful narrative along with Alli (Maria Dizzia), an angry, frustrated voyeur who evolves to experience empathy and compassion. Understated sound design compliments Dizzia's heart felt performance.

Although there is nothing particularly original within the story - the trajectory of the dual narratives is easily perceptible, so no big surprises - the film lingers, heartening you to reflect upon and appreciate those you love.