'Searching' Review: Twists and turns of digital world deliver a good psychological thriller

Movie: Searching

Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, and Michelle La

Director: Aneesh Chaganty

Genre: Thriller

Duration: 1hr 42min

Story:

16-years-old Margot (Michelle La) goes missing one night, but not before attempting to call her father David (John Cho) in the middle of the pitch dark. With the help of all the traces left by his daughter in the omnipresent bubble of the online world, David joins the investigation led by Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing). Then follows a fast-paced story of a father moving heaven and earth to find his daughter.

Review:

The mundane apps we don't think about beyond sharing the information and reacting to those, become the narrators here. The movie's tagline — 'No-one is lost without a trace' — speaks nothing but truth in this era after the issues like Cambridge Analytica have changed the idea of sharing information forever. The movie begins with a family selfie as the profile picture and ends with another picture of the family on the desktop screen.

The first and the last things anyone will remember about Searching is the unique way director Aneesh Chaganty filmed it. Entire story unfolds on various screens, told from the perspective of apps. Something that is expected of someone who made commercials for Googles. But the story Chaganty co-wrote with Sev Ohanian, not even for a second let's you forget that there is a race against time to save a life, secrets are being revealed and that anyone and everyone in the story is a suspect. Swift editing by Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick keeps you on the edge of the seat. But the real credit goes to cinematographers.

Searching is a fully fleshed out version of Chaganty's short film Search. Therefore the director knew where he is coming from and how much the movie needed to grow in order to become a widely appreciated box office success. His cinematographers Juan Sebastian Baron, Nicholas D. Johnson, and Will Merrick (directors of virtual photography) make you focus on every single detail of apps that have become an integral part of our lives. The sequence to find out the password for a social media account is brilliantly done. When John Cho's character is Facetiming with his brother or colleagues, his eyes keep hovering over the iMessage service notifications. It's the minute details like these add to the ingenuity of the movie.

There isn't much wiggle room for the actors in this unconventional movie. Even then, John Cho and Debra Messing tick all the necessary boxes to keep the suspense alive. Cho's panicked father is balanced out by Messing's calculated and efficient detective. Eagle-eyed viewers will find director Chaganty make appearances in several scenes.

Verdict:

This novel way of narration exceeds expectations and delivers a good thriller worth your time.

Critic's Rating: 4/5

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