Tag: searching

SEARCHING – Review

SEARCHING is a high-concept thriller presented with a unique sort of found footage gimmick. The entire film unfolds exclusively on screens:  Skype, broadcast TV news shows, Facebook, YouTube videos, Videocast, instant messaging, Google searching, etc. Yes, we’ve seen this before (the UNFRIENDED franchise and OPEN WINDOWS), but it’s done well here and mostly works as a compelling mystery told through the modern technology and social media devices we use every day.

SEARCHING opens with a series of google calendar entries and videos sadly chronicling the death of a young wife and mom from cancer (shades of the opening of UP). A few years later the dad David (John Cho) and daughter Margot (Michelle La), now 16, enjoy a close relationship, texting each other several times a day and keeping a date to watch The Voice together. Late one night, Margot calls David in the middle of the night, and the following day he retrieves her missed calls, but can’t reach her.  Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing), a sympathetic single parent herself, is assigned to the missing person case, but when the investigation stalls, David cracks into his daughter’s laptop to help put the puzzle pieces together through cyberspace. Rummaging through her texts and favorite sites, he finds a disturbing side of a daughter he never knew. She’d been skipping her piano lessons and using that money mysteriously. We learn the seemingly straight-laced Margot was more unstable and deeply affected by her mom’s death than David realized.

SEARCHING timely gimmick makes for narrative limits, but also helps ground the movie in a mostly believable premise that keeps you guessing. It’s impressive how committed the movie, directed by Aneesh Chaganty, is to its all-screens format, even down to its soundtrack. If there were inorganic elements, I didn’t spot them. I did spot some implausible twists and plot points though (the girl is missing from an suburban lake for just five days and she’s not only declared officially dead, but they have a funeral for her!), but to its credit, the story is engrossing, the audience does want to see how the (admittedly trashy) mystery plays out, and the father-daughter dynamic at the film’s center seems real.  John Cho gives a strong central performance as the grieving dad and Joseph Lee is good as his shady brother. The weak link is Messing, whose stiff performance can’t be blamed on the ridiculous way she’s tied into the story’s twists. SEARCHING is a flawed but surprisingly decent flick, and the unique on-screen framework gives the narrative a little extra punch.

3 1/2 of 5 Stars

 

 

Win Passes To The Advance Screening of SEARCHING In St. Louis


David Kim’s daughter is missing. He can’t find out where she is until he finds out who she is!

SEARCHING doesn’t open until August 31st, but lucky St. Louisans  can see it in advance! We Are Movie Geeks is giving away passes for an advance screening on August 23rd.

For a pair of tickets, all you have to do is add you name and email in our comments section below.NO PURCHASE REQUIRED. A pass does not guarantee a seat at a screening. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. The theater is often overbooked to assure a full house.

After David Kim (John Cho)’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.

Sundance Fest Hit SEARCHING Movie Gets A New Trailer – Stars John Cho

From the producer of UNFRIENDED (Timur Bekmambetov) comes the brand new trailer for Sundance 2018 hit SEARCHING, starring John Cho and Debra Messing.

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired worldwide rights to the thriller at a reported $5 million after it’s debut at the festival.

After David Kim (John Cho)’s 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a local investigation is opened and a detective is assigned to the case. But 37 hours later and without a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, where all secrets are kept today: his daughter’s laptop. In a hyper-modern thriller told via the technology devices we use every day to communicate, David must trace his daughter’s digital footprints before she disappears forever.

The film was met with glowing reviews from Sundance earlier this year:

Variety – ““Search” is one of those movies, like “Tarnation” or “The Blair Witch Project,” so unique in its approach that Sundance can only program something of its kind once before the gimmick gets old — in this case, a taut missing-persons investigation that unfolds entirely on computer screens. Good thing then that first-time feature director Aneesh Chaganty has concocted such an exceptionally clever riff on that idea.”

Hollywood Reporter –  “what Chaganty and his team have pulled off here is something both novel and accomplished.”

Screen Daily – “by unleashing one narrative misdirection after another — teasing the audience and David about whether Margot is dead — Search in its own way milks potential tragedy for escapist entertainment. It’s why Cho’s empathetic portrayal is so important: he’s the beating heart of a film that can be coldblooded in its construction.”

SEARCHING opens in theaters on August 3, 2018.