Searching is a timely film, for that there is no question. But, I would argue that a more apt descriptor for the online-only thriller starring John Cho is electric. Well, that and wildly inventive and an absolute cure for summer blockbuster fatigue.
David Kim (Cho) experiences every parent’s nightmare when his 16-year-old daughter Margot (Michelle La) doesn’t come home from a study group. Slowly and surely, the hours go by and instead of her return, the mystery deepens. It appears his child is living a life online that is radically different from the narrative his father thinks he knows.
When he phones the police to report her missing, Detective Vick (Debra Messing) takes on the case. The two work together as they try to paint a picture of Margot from her digital footprint. Locked out from her various social media profiles, Margot’s dad gets creative and commences to piece together a portrait of his daughter that resembles nothing he thought he knew about daddy’s little girl.
Director Aneesh Chaganty, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sev Ohanian, has achieved something extraordinary with his feature film debut. Searching is told solely through “screen time.” The helmer utilizes FaceTime, IMs, DMs, video chats, video conferencing (as we get to see David at work and how he is handling the most troubling of current affairs) and YouTube clips of news stories as Margot’s disappearance becomes national news. Viewers are even given a front-row seat to David’s Google searches, he and his daughter’s email accounts and of course the social media platforms that are proliferating our lives. Collectively, it is a marvel of a storytelling platform that is wildly creative and dramatically spellbinding.
Cho is a revelation. He has always been an uber talent, albeit an underused one. Of course, mass audiences know him from the Harold and Kumar movies, his brief—but scene-stealing—turn in the American Pie films and of course as Sulu in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek franchise. He is equally adept at comedy and drama and as a longtime appreciator of his work, it is such a delight to witness him rising to the occasion in Searching and delivers a performance that transcends everything he’s done prior.
Searching
Performing within the confines of the incredibly unique storytelling means that Chaganty utilizes in Searching could not have been more of a test. It is mesmerizing what Cho achieves through one-hour-and-forty-two-minutes. The actor delves deeper than he ever has and produces an emotive hurricane that will resonate with parents and anyone who has a heart.
La also achieves something truly special with her turn as a teenager whose life is truly a mystery. The young actress performs most of her duties in “pre-recorded” videos that show up on her social media platforms and a website that seems to serve as a teenager-centric video diary. Her work is rarely alongside Cho. Yet there is never a doubt that the two are father-daughter and everything that entails. From a thespian point of view, Searching is a true marvel.
Crafting the detective in charge of the search for Margot, Messing gives us the performance of her career. Vick is a nuanced character with a rich backstory. In the hands of the Will and Grace veteran, the character comes alive in the most three-dimensional of ways that also plays right into the mystery aspect of the film that will keep audiences guessing as to Margot’s fate until the final frame.
Chaganty has given audiences a cinematic gift that is as massively moving as it is gripping, pulse-pounding and revolutionarily riveting.
Grade: A+