Searching tells a well-worn story, but in a vital new way - one that gives it sharp contemporary relevance. Like the recent Unfriended: Dark Web it uses a 'laptop screen' format - a tale told through and about modern electronic media. Whereas the Unfriended horror franchise keeps tightly within the bounds of real-time online experience, Searching expands the technique using a variety of screens (chiefly but not exclusively home computers) to create a taut suspense thriller. It also gets under its central character's skin as effectively as most conventional dramas.
John Cho plays David Kim, a widowed father, whose teenage daughter Margot fails to return from school. As panic incrementally mounts, he begins to quiz Margot's acquaintances and to scour her social media for clues as to where and why she might have gone. Working alongside police detective Rosemary Vick (Will and Grace's Debra Messing), he realises - maybe too late - how far he has drifted from understanding his own child and what is going on in her life.
On one level this is a classic missing-persons thriller of the type TV drama Without a Trace told week-to-week. There's the build of ticking-clock urgency, the plot mis-direction, the head-butting between desperate parent and police professional. What sets it apart is the consistently inventive filtering of events through numerous visual media; face-timing, instant messaging, Youtube videos and news footage all play a role in the unfolding drama. It's tightly edited and coherent at all points, shaped into something both unique and genuinely cinematic. And the issues at its heart turn the movie's style into more than just a gimmick.
Searching deals with the phenomenon of lives recorded online; its introductory montage (reminiscent of the opening to Pixar's Up) establishes the entire Kim family history. The computer record proves utterly familiar, a startling reminder of how tightly our lives are interwoven with new media. And that's before events take a dark turn. Margot's inner teen-life finds its natural outlet online so that when she goes missing, the clues to her disappearance lie mostly there, rather than at any real-world location. As with Unfriended: Dark Web, this is an examination of virtual interactions resulting in real-life consequences. It's only natural then that the story's intriguing detective element takes place via computer. Add to that some smirk-inducing satire of broader online culture and you have a perfect fusion of style with substance.
Particular credit goes to Cho (Mr Sulu from the Star Trek cinema reboot); his performance as the baffled and despairing father convinces, even under computer face-time's unforgiving scrutiny. That camera gets up close and uncomfortably personal, so there's no room for faking. One of the film's key strengths, in fact, is its characters' believability as observed through multiple digital formats - as when Detective Vick blearily takes a middle-of-the-night Skype call. It's a factor reinforced by the accuracy with which everything on-screen is conveyed. The story persuades with its attention to detail, selling the narrative's most extravagant twists.
There'll be an inevitable moment during Searching, when you'll become aware of how much time you spend in front of computer screens and that you're effectively passing your evening by staring at a super-sized version. That the writing-directing team make the experience both authentic and a riveting piece of suspense cinema is impressive. If you end up fixating on a cinema-screen-sized cursor, whispering 'He's not going to close the window, is he? Is he?', then this experiment in tension is doing something very right.
Where Are the Women?: Messing finds depth in her cop character, while Michelle La makes a nicely-judged film debut as troubled daughter Margot.
Ed's Verdict: 7.5/10. First-time feature-director Aneesh Chaganty makes a great entrance with this wrong-footing tech thriller, where every scrap of e-info counts. It's innovative storytelling, that will have parents wondering what the hell their kids are really getting up to online.
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