Year: 2018
Director: Aneesh Chaganty
Screenplay: Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian
Starring: John Cho, Debra Messing, Michelle La, Sara Sohn, Joseph Lee, Steven Michael Eich
Genre: Thriller
Running Time: 102 minutes
San Jose, California: David Kim (Cho) desperately searches for his missing 16 year old daughter, Margot (La).
There is very little that you can say about the plot of this film without giving away one of its many twists. The storyline is, in many ways, a traditional mystery thriller in which a widowed father desperately searches for his missing daughter, following clues, chasing down red herrings, and investigating suspects. However, what is innovative here is that the whole film takes place on computer screens. David conducts his investigation mostly from his own home, searching through his daughter's social media feeds, Skypeing and WhatsApping potential witnesses and suspects, and finding clues through CCTV footage that he has been sent by the detective investigating the case (Debra Messing). The film opens with a moving sequence of the family in happier times before David's wife and Margot's mother's death by cancer, depicted through the family's various screens, setting up family accounts on their new computer, videos of birthdays and holidays, online posts and calendar appointments. Although the film was released two years before Covid, in a way it feels more pertinent in a covid and post-Covid world, now that we are living our lives more online than ever. John Cho gives a strong performance as the tormented father, who for most of the film is sitting looking directly at the camera (his various screens). The film mixes traditional detective story elements with modern technology, and at times the many twists and turns of the narrative strain credulity, but it is involving throughout, and the style manages to be more than just a gimmick. The computer screen subgenre of found footage film is a difficult one to make work, partly because they look dated very quickly, due to how quickly computer technology moves forward. Searching, however, is well worth the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment