They did it! They finally cracked the code. As I mentioned in my review for Unfriended: Dark Web, the idea for doing an entire film within the confines of a computer screen (by the way, we seriously need to come up with a proper name for this) isn’t a new thing, but it’s a style of filmmaking that has yet to make a more profound artistic breakthrough. Timur Bekmambetov has produced both of the Unfriended films, and is basically single-handedly bringing this style to the mainstream through his production house, Bazelevs Company. He continues this with Searching, which is directed by Aneesh Chaganty, who co-wrote it with Sev Ohanian.
Searching takes a slight step away from the horror angle of the Unfriended films, though the setup will undeniably be horrifying for all the parents out there. It follows David Kim (John Cho), who wakes up and realizes his teenage daughter, Margot (Michelle La), has gone missing. After notifying the police, Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is assigned to the case. She enlists his help to gather whatever relevant information about his daughter he can find while she does the investigation. David goes through Margot’s computer and social media, finding whatever he can to help track her down, and he slowly comes to the face the unthinkable truth that he might not have known his daughter as well as he thought.
Cutting right to the chase, I love this movie. It’s an incredible experience that shows this style of filmmaking can be mined for thoughtful and thrilling storytelling in a way that feels genuinely innovative and fresh. It’s strange because the difference in craft between this and Unfriended is fairly minimal. All this movie does is add the ability for the camera to actually pan around and explore the computer screen, which allows it to place appropriate emphasis on specific things, as well as forming a real sense of framing and blocking. It frees the film to be more evocative and suspenseful, which is much harder to achieve when you’re stuck on one static screen. It uses the tools of this technology to make for a more fulfilling cinematic experience.
For example, the film opens with a montage that plays like a riff on the opening sequence of Up. It shows various family member profiles on a computer with Windows XP, and we see videos and pictures of the Kim family from when Margot was young, and going through the years, capturing small moments like Margot creating a Facebook page, to the more life-changing stuff like the emails that David gets from friends after his wife, Pam (Sara Sohn), passes away due to complications with cancer. It’s genuinely moving because it taps into the attachment we get to seemingly mundane things online, and the nostalgia that the audience might have about certain things they grew up with. It does this while also setting up the awkward and emotionally distant dynamic that David has with Margot since he hasn’t been able to really talk to her and come to terms with what happened to Pam. It’s a truly stellar sequence that earns inevitable Up comparisons, and the great news is that the film doesn’t falter after that.
The film remains engaging as hell once the actual mystery kicks in. It really plays into that “parents’ worst nightmare” quality as David gets desperate to find something that can lead to his daughter, only to be met with increasingly strange information about Margot’s online life. John Cho has always been a great actor with plenty of charm to spare, yet never got the bigger roles he deserved. Debra Messing is the only other actor with a significant amount of screen time, and she is great too, but it’s very much Cho’s show, and he commands every second he’s on screen. I’m sure most dads in the audience will find themselves in a cold sweat given the various turns the film takes, the way Cho dramatizes his anger and confusion with the investigation, as well as the new places he has to dive into – “what is a tumbler?,” he aggressively shouts at one point. And that’s another thing, the movie is also really funny. It’s all in the small details, and the film is filled with them. These small moments all come at the right time, and they keep the audience on their toes. It’s the kind of effortless manipulation of an audience that is often so hard to do, especially for a first feature, but Chaganty plays the audience with such refined crowd pleasing impulses, it’s like he’s been doing this for years.
It’s also refreshing to see a tech movie that doesn’t treat technology like some kind of boogeyman. It might be appropriate for something like Unfriended: Dark Web, but this one aims to be grounded, and it achieves that by acknowledging that computers and the internet are just tools, and they’re tools that can be used to inform story, character, and theme in very inventive ways. We spend so much time online, and the things we share and don’t share can give us a glimpse at who someone is, and Chaganty and Ohanian smartly and honestly dive into that without any sense of judgment or condemnation. It does have something to say about how we present ourselves in relation to others, but it’s done with far more empathy and thoughtfulness than other tech movies tend to be.
When I got out of Searching, my immediate feeling was the desire to get a ticket and go back in for round two, so I can try and catch all the details I might have missed the first time. That’s a sign you have a real winner. Searching finally delivers on the promise that this style of storytelling (again, we really need to agree on a term here) has been making for the past several years, and boy, is it a revelation. It takes what can easily be – and has been – a gimmick, and by simply nailing all the basics of telling a good story, combined with a fantastic lead performance, a compelling mystery, a strong emotional core, and a satisfying conclusion, it easily rises above every previous attempt. And not only is it the best one of these movies, it might just be one of the best movies of the year, period.