Searching

Searching (2018)

91% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 130 reviews)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: Aneesh Chaganty

Starring: John Cho, Debra Messing, and Michelle La. You mainly only see those three

From: Sony

This movie had a lot of hype... and to me it lived up to said hype: 

This will forever be compared to the Unfriended films (and not just for the obvious reasons; Timur Bekmambetov produced all of them) but this is definitely the more serious of tales from the perspective of a laptop screen.

One day, the teen daughter of John Cho goes missing and he tries his hardest to assist police detective Debra Messing as he tries to figure out who his kid really is. Various characters are seen including the teen's uncle but much of the time it's just Cho and thankfully he does a great job as the grieving dad who goes through a gamut of emotions. Like in the Unfriended movies, real-life Internet entities are used, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. Plus, online videos are shown to advance the story.

A lot of “youths” were in the crowd and of course there were plenty of giggles at seeing an eggplant emoji used in a conversation; that was one of a few humorous moments. I wasn't sure beforehand what the audience experience would be but once it began there was no issue and in fact they were really into Searching. While it can be argued there was at least one contrivance in this story full of twists & turns & misdirections, overall this was an effective and compelling thriller. After the melancholy yet great opening which in a few minutes explains the teen (Margot) and childhood and why Cho is a single dad, I was impressed and hoped the rest wouldn't be a letdown. Much to my relief it was not as I was enwrapped in trying to figure out the mystery.

Those that are wary because of the similarities to the preposterous Unfriended movies... those fears are unfounded. The scenario and the plot are much more realistic in this tale that is much more than just its gimmick.