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| photo courtesy of qatarcinemas.com |
Director Aneesh
Chaganty breathes life into the screenshot-thriller subgenre with Searching, a movie about a single
father’s frantic hunt for his missing daughter. John Cho stars as David Kim,
whose daughter Margot inexplicably disappears after a late-night study session.
As Kim combs through Margot’s computer and social media accounts looking for
clues, he becomes aware of the divergence between her public persona—the
version he knows—and the secretive version of herself she presents online.
Searching is
a neat, effective thriller. Like any proper suspense flick, it features suitably
creepy atmospherics, plenty of twists and turns, and a few stomach-dropping
revelations. And beyond the usual genre goodies, Searching distinguishes itself with a smart screenplay, good acting
(especially from John Cho in the lead role), and some genuinely emotional
character dynamics.
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| photo courtesy of theverge.com |
The movie’s most distinctive
feature, of course, is that it presents its entire narrative on a computer
screen, letting the audience watch as the main character navigates through his
desktop. Other movies have done this before (such as this year’s Unfriended: Dark Web and its predecessor),
but here the technique isn’t just a gimmick; the filmmakers actually use it to
enhance and complicate their story. Indeed, some of its best sequences
(including a particularly poignant opening vaguely reminiscent of Up) are more like desktop montages than
scenes, per se. And in part, the reason Searching
works so convincingly as a thriller is that this social media nightmare seems
plausible. Although social media connects us all, it can also conceal our
secrets or leave us vulnerable.
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| photo courtesy of vox.com |
Timely and clever
though it may be, Searching isn’t a
masterpiece. As in any movie so determined to trick and/or outwit the audience,
it allows a certain amount of predictability and implausibility. Some of its
misdirection feels a bit shallow. So while Searching
most definitely makes for exciting storytelling, some moviegoers will have it
figured out from the get-go.
TRAILER
Watch the trailer here.
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| photo courtesy of sfgate.com |
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