Review: Searching (2018)

Searching (2018)

Rated PG-13 for thematic content, some drug and sexual references, and for language

Score: 5 out of 5

Wow. As an unapologetic fan of the first Unfriended (which shares a producer with this film, Russian-Kazakh filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov), I already knew that the basic concept of a movie told entirely through a computer screen was one that could absolutely work, as unusual and gimmicky as it may sound at first glance. Fans of creepypasta probably knew it even before then, but even so, the idea of a "serious" film, one outside the teen horror genre, taking that idea and running with it sounded amazing. Well, here we are, with what I consider to be the fulfillment of the promise that Unfriended showed. Searching is one of the best films of the year, a gripping thriller that deftly explores the "generation gap" when it comes to internet use and how well parents really know their kids as a result, without unambiguously condemning social media like one may see in any number of other films. All of it is held together by an outstanding performance from John Cho, proving that he can take on dramatic "dad" roles just as well as he can comedy or sci-fi action. Don't let its seemingly low-stakes plot and lack of graphic details fool you; Searching is easily a match and then some for any number of lurid, cheesy B-movies in terms of the thrill ride it will take you on.

Our protagonist is David Kim, a man whose wife Pamela recently passed away from lymphoma and who is now raising his sixteen-year-old daughter Margot alone. One night, Margot fails to return home after a study session, and once it becomes clear that nobody knows where she went off to, David, with help from police detective Rosemary Vick, starts scouring her computer and her social media profiles to look for clues as to her whereabouts. As he explores her life, David starts to realize just how much of a gap had grown between him and Margot as she started growing up, and that, despite thinking that the two were friends, he barely knew her at all.

Given that this is a mystery thriller, to go into more detail would constitute spoilers, but I can say that this movie manages to tap into the sort of fear that every parent has about how their kids will turn out, and not just in the obvious stuff concerning sex, drugs, failing grades, and delinquency. Rather, this movie goes after the bigger fear underlying all of that: that they have lost touch with their children, and cannot help them through the problems they now face at school, with their classmates, and with life in general. We see that Margot was a very lonely girl who was still struggling with her mother's death and desperate for real friendship, most of her childhood friends having fallen away and only continuing to invite her to parties and ski trips because "hey, I know you, you're cool!", a far cry from how David thought that she was still hanging out with all of them. As heartbroken as David is at the thought of what might have happened to Margot, the bigger issue, especially upon the big reveal, is the thought that none of this would've happened if only the two of them had opened up to each other a bit more. John Cho is outstanding as David, a man who thought he was being the best parent he could and who slowly breaks down upon realizing not only the serious peril that his daughter is in, but also that he isn't the super-dad he thought he was, lashing out at everybody from a jerk who mocked Margot online to his own brother as he grows increasingly desperate to find her. Right beside him is Debra Messing in a key supporting role as Detective Vick, who is driven and invested in the case in her own unique ways that become clear as the film goes on, ways that make her almost a counterpart to David in many respects.

The film's take on found footage is handled similarly to Unfriended, especially in the attention to detail and realism paid to how the internet is presented. It's something that the film takes time to highlight in an opening montage tracking milestones in Margot's life with the development of the internet and computer technology over the last fifteen years, from cat videos, screamers, and Flash games to modern social media, a scene that compresses the film's entire point of view with regards to the internet into two minutes: that it is what we make of it. Unlike many thrillers built around the internet, this one is remarkably even-handed in how it portrays social media, showcasing the assholes and harassers on one hand but also how it allows us to remember cherished moments from our past and find new friends on the other. While the reason for Margot's disappearance turns out to be something related to the internet, it's made clear that the problems in her life that led to that all came from the "real" world. It felt almost like a lighter version of how Unfriended portrayed it (for a certain standard of "lighter"; this is still a PG-13 thriller, after all); in that film, while social media enabled the characters' worst tendencies and didn't come off scot-free, it was made clear that they were already a gaggle of little brats before then. It's handled here with a little more flair than it was in Unfriended, as while that film took place in real time over a couple of hours, Searching takes place over several days and has the camera focus on various things on David's computer screen, following what he's focusing on. The concession to a more movie-style pacing didn't hurt the film one bit, instead allowing it to get through all of the slower parts and focus on the important stuff without having to come up with ways to make every part of David's investigation interesting.

The Bottom Line

Searching is an excellent thriller that stands as one of the year's best, a film that I'm shocked they dumped into theaters in the wasteland of Labor Day weekend, of all the possible times to release it. While the "taking place on a computer screen" setup isn't as novel to me as it seems to be to many other critics, I'd argue that it still offered up an incredible use of it that represents just what kind of unique story can be told with it. Do not miss this movie.