☆☆☆☆
Told in a more traditional way, Searching would still be a superior thriller, a missing-child story with a unusually strong sense of human-scale emotion at its core. That alone would set it apart from a routine procedural, which in some ways it is.
But it's different in a crucial way, blending a distinctive and innovative storytelling style with a central performance by John Cho that won't be recognized by any of the stuffy awards programs but is certainly one of the best (and most technically challenging) of the year. He's on screen almost all of the time, acting with characters who are often never there.
That's because the movie is told in the way we're living more and more of our lives: on computer screens. That sounds like a gimmick, and it is, but not necessarily a cheap one. Searching begins with a dazzlingly choreographed series of shots that recount how David Kim (Cho) came to be a single parent; it's one of the most unexpectedly and genuinely moving pieces of montage filmmaking since Up devastated the lives of every parent in the audience with its wordless recounting of childhood, courtship, marriage, adulthood and death.
Searching is billed as a low-budget digital thriller, and such a vivid and affecting opening sequence serves the dual purpose of throwing its audience off balance (weren't we here for a simple little thriller?) and establishing some serious emotional stakes in what could well have been an easily dismissed B-movie.
It also eases us in to its carefully constructed, beautifully executed storytelling style. Everything we see in Searching is on a computer screen of one kind or another -- and if that seems like it would be limiting, director Aneesh Chaganty, who's making his feature-film debut, and his co-writer Sev Ohanian have thought it all out in ways that feel mostly seamless. There are moments that require suspension of disbelief -- the camera on David's computer is always and conveniently turned on -- but they don't distract.
Searching begins with a phone call between David and his 15-year-old daughter Margot, who checks in with her dad while studying with friends. And that's the last time he ever hears from her. It's the kind of right-before-our-eyes scenario that has driven taut thrillers like The Vanishing and Breakdown, and Searching certainly belongs beside them.
It takes David a while to come to the horrifying conclusion that a sinister fate may have befallen his daughter, and as he begins his investigation into her disappearance, he also begins to dig into her digital life. It's here Searching adds some complexity -- and complicity -- to its tale, offering up a rather sobering reminder of how much even a 15-year-old does online that she doesn't want others to see. David is soon joined by an enormously sympathetic detective (Debra Messing, surprisingly good in a straight dramatic role), who works with him to piece together the days leading up to Margot's last moments.
Searching is gripping enough narratively, but in its impressively complex use of different kinds of screens and a variety of websites and computer programs it also becomes a bracing look at how we've come to live so much of our lives online. With few exceptions, the screen-based storytelling doesn't feel forced, and it moves at such a brisk pace and uses so much of the screen in clever ways that there are times when Searching feels like genuine cinematic innovation.
(It's worth noting, too, that in the midst of the enormous media attention foisted upon Crazy Rich Asians for its Asian cast, Searching is a movie that puts an Asian-American family front and center and builds an entire movie around Asian characters in an unassuming, matter-of-fact way. Searching offers compelling evidence that the best movies reflect the demographics of the world today.0
The resolution to Searching offers up at least two, maybe three -- or four, depending on how you look at it -- climactic twists, all of which are pleasingly unexpected and none of which feel forced. There's a confidence on display in Searching that's impressively reassuring.
And yet, the confidence of Searching could easily turn into hubris -- the filmmakers have announced plans for more films told in the computer-screen style. Here, it's a gimmick that works, but just as The Blair Witch Project begat endless "found-footage" movies, Searching is likely to get others to jump on this bandwagon, thinking that the style is what makes Searching work so well.
It's not, of course. Rather it's a movie fueled by by actors who are in command of their craft, filmmakers who have a clear vision, and a vivid, enthralling story told tremendously well.
Viewed September 2, 2018 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks
1945
But it's different in a crucial way, blending a distinctive and innovative storytelling style with a central performance by John Cho that won't be recognized by any of the stuffy awards programs but is certainly one of the best (and most technically challenging) of the year. He's on screen almost all of the time, acting with characters who are often never there.
That's because the movie is told in the way we're living more and more of our lives: on computer screens. That sounds like a gimmick, and it is, but not necessarily a cheap one. Searching begins with a dazzlingly choreographed series of shots that recount how David Kim (Cho) came to be a single parent; it's one of the most unexpectedly and genuinely moving pieces of montage filmmaking since Up devastated the lives of every parent in the audience with its wordless recounting of childhood, courtship, marriage, adulthood and death.
Searching is billed as a low-budget digital thriller, and such a vivid and affecting opening sequence serves the dual purpose of throwing its audience off balance (weren't we here for a simple little thriller?) and establishing some serious emotional stakes in what could well have been an easily dismissed B-movie.
It also eases us in to its carefully constructed, beautifully executed storytelling style. Everything we see in Searching is on a computer screen of one kind or another -- and if that seems like it would be limiting, director Aneesh Chaganty, who's making his feature-film debut, and his co-writer Sev Ohanian have thought it all out in ways that feel mostly seamless. There are moments that require suspension of disbelief -- the camera on David's computer is always and conveniently turned on -- but they don't distract.
Searching begins with a phone call between David and his 15-year-old daughter Margot, who checks in with her dad while studying with friends. And that's the last time he ever hears from her. It's the kind of right-before-our-eyes scenario that has driven taut thrillers like The Vanishing and Breakdown, and Searching certainly belongs beside them.
It takes David a while to come to the horrifying conclusion that a sinister fate may have befallen his daughter, and as he begins his investigation into her disappearance, he also begins to dig into her digital life. It's here Searching adds some complexity -- and complicity -- to its tale, offering up a rather sobering reminder of how much even a 15-year-old does online that she doesn't want others to see. David is soon joined by an enormously sympathetic detective (Debra Messing, surprisingly good in a straight dramatic role), who works with him to piece together the days leading up to Margot's last moments.
Searching is gripping enough narratively, but in its impressively complex use of different kinds of screens and a variety of websites and computer programs it also becomes a bracing look at how we've come to live so much of our lives online. With few exceptions, the screen-based storytelling doesn't feel forced, and it moves at such a brisk pace and uses so much of the screen in clever ways that there are times when Searching feels like genuine cinematic innovation.
(It's worth noting, too, that in the midst of the enormous media attention foisted upon Crazy Rich Asians for its Asian cast, Searching is a movie that puts an Asian-American family front and center and builds an entire movie around Asian characters in an unassuming, matter-of-fact way. Searching offers compelling evidence that the best movies reflect the demographics of the world today.0
The resolution to Searching offers up at least two, maybe three -- or four, depending on how you look at it -- climactic twists, all of which are pleasingly unexpected and none of which feel forced. There's a confidence on display in Searching that's impressively reassuring.
And yet, the confidence of Searching could easily turn into hubris -- the filmmakers have announced plans for more films told in the computer-screen style. Here, it's a gimmick that works, but just as The Blair Witch Project begat endless "found-footage" movies, Searching is likely to get others to jump on this bandwagon, thinking that the style is what makes Searching work so well.
It's not, of course. Rather it's a movie fueled by by actors who are in command of their craft, filmmakers who have a clear vision, and a vivid, enthralling story told tremendously well.
Viewed September 2, 2018 -- ArcLight Sherman Oaks
1945
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