Searching review

SEARCHING:

JOHN CHO SEARCHES FOR HIS DAUGHTER IN THIS LOW-BUDGET BUT BRILLIANTLY EXECUTED THRILLER!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** ½ out of 4

SCREEN GEMS AND STAGE 6 FILMS

No one is lost without a trace in Searching

            Apparently, Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, 9, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is obsessed with producing horror movies and thrillers that take place entirely on computer screens. First, he produced 2015’s Unfriended and its spiritual sequel, Unfriended: Dark Web, which came out earlier this year, now the latest thriller, Searching.

            The film is directed by newcomer, Aneesh Chaganty and stars John Cho (American Pie franchise, Harold & Kumar trilogy, Star Trek (2009 trilogy)) as a single father trying to find his daughter who has mysteriously gone missing. This marks the first mainstream Hollywood thriller to be headlined by an Asian-American actor but probably won’t dethrone Crazy Rich Asians as the #1 at the box-office spot.

            On the surface this probably doesn’t sound very original in terms of its story, a father looking for his daughter and the entire movie is shot on computer and smartphone screens…totally original concepts, aren’t they? Despite looking like a hybrid of Unfriended and Taken, Searching kept me invested all the way through and in my opinion surpasses the films that may have inspired it, yeah Unfriended may have been the first movie shot on a computer screen to get mainstream attention but Searching perfected it.

            The film follows David Kim (Cho), single father of Margot Kim (Newcomer, Michelle La) who has lost his wife, Pamela to cancer some time ago and is left to raise his teenage daughter alone. One night, Margot suddenly goes missing and a local investigation is opened and Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing-Will & Grace, A Walk in the Clouds, The Mothman Prophecies) is assigned to the case.

            But 37 hours later and not a single lead, David decides to search the one place no one has looked yet, his daughter’s laptop. As he goes through Margot’s files and accounts, David begins to unravel secrets he never knew about his daughter as he digs deeper into the mystery to discover the shocking truth.

            Overall, Searching is a brilliantly executed thriller that seems familiar at first but the Unfriended and Taken similarities end the moment the daughter goes missing. There is no supernatural element, nor does it have John Cho beating up bad guys like Liam Neeson, just a simple premise with a detailed mystery that offers subtle and atmospheric thrills rather than scares or action sequences.

            While I praised Hereditary for its risk taking and acknowledged Unfriended: Dark Web’s interesting premise despite the film not living up to it, I don’t think I was more invested in a horror/thriller this year than Searching. This movie kept me guessing and I had no idea where it was going and by the end I was completely speechless, haven’t felt like that since Prisoners.

            One of the things I really appreciate about the film is that you never see how the daughter goes missing in the beginning. All you see is this ingenious sequence showing nothing but the computer’s screensaver, two call alerts, and a FaceTime alert set to creepy music, then cuts to the daughter immediately gone.

            Searching also delivers some of the best John Cho acting I’ve ever seen, who I usually associate with his comedic work on American Pie or the Harold & Kumar movies, it’s refreshing to see him do a more dramatic performance and he sells every moment of it. You can see the determination to find his daughter to the point where it gets creepy and he has strong chemistry with the police detective.

            I get the feeling this movie will be overshadowed by the next installment of the Conjuring franchise, The Nun when that comes out. I’m serious, before you head back to that creepy franchise, take some time to watch this clever thriller that makes something new out of familiar concepts and gimmicks and delivers a gripping mystery.

            What looked like a hybrid of Unfriended and Taken at first glance has surpassed both movies in just about every way with less style and more substance. This is a movie worth “Searching” for at your local theater and watching, you won’t regret it.