Searching

Year: 2018
Director: Aneesh Chaganty
Cast: John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michella La


Plot: When David Kim's daughter Margot goes missing, he uses every tool available on the internet to find her, but hits a major stumbling block when he realises he doesn't know his daughter as well as he thought.


Review: Searching is a new thriller presented from the POV of a frantic father looking at a computer screen. Does that sound familiar?

Yes folks, this is just like Unfriended, minus the horror and gory deaths. David Kim, a widower looking for his missing daughter, uses all the internet tools we know of, and a few fictional ones in place of the actual ones, to find her, such as Facebook, Youtube, Google, Tumblr and the fictitious Youcast (which works exactly like Instagram Live). Like Unfriended, it works tremendously well as a storytelling device, and it does not diminish the performances of the cast in any way. Through David's conversations with the police, his brother and his daughter's friends, we learn that he isn't as close to his daughter as he figured, and that he had drifted apart from her after his wife's recent death.

These internet tools also succeed in delivering the thrills whenever David gets a new lead or gets emotional, as the cameras in play capture nearly every frame, and when that isn't enough, we get live TV news reports. Director Aneesh Chaganty, who co-wrote the film with Sev Ohanian, deftly places clues and red herrings throughout the entire film to keep the audience guessing as to what happened to David's daughter Margot, and the payoff is well worth the wait.

John Cho proves that he is a very underrated actor as he delivers a tour de force performance as David, convincingly conveying the kind of reaction we would have if one of our loved ones goes missing. I hope this film leads to Cho getting more lead roles in the future. Debra Messing also puts in strong support as the detective who assists David in finding Margot.

The film does occasionally make you wonder how easy it is for people to obtain information about other people who are complete strangers to them, or how David seems to have to do a lot of stuff most detectives would already be doing in a case like this. Nevertheless, it isn't enough to spoil your enjoyment here.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Searching, as both an educational tool and a piece of entertainment. If it doesn't teach you about how to use the internet to your advantage, it will remind you about the importance of family. Recommended. (8/10)