A recent trend that has risen in horrors and thrillers is the use of a laptop as a focal point for activities, with incidents often seen from the perspective of the computer's screen. Following in the footsteps of the Unfriended series, Searching takes place entirely on the laptop of Margot Kim. She has gone missing and her father has taken it upon himself to find her, digging into the various content platforms his daughter has been using to uncover secrets that Margot has been hiding from him. While these so-called 'screen movies' can feel as gimmicky as found footage (The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield) they do bring an immediacy to the story that is being told that other formats often do not.
Searching seems a classier affair then previous examples. Its cast is led by John Cho, who most will be familiar with from the recent Star Trek movie as well as the Harold & Kumar trilogy, but who has proved an actor who is willing to take on more challenging indie fare. Plus the film is Aneesh Chaganty's directorial debut, after he made a particularly strong impact with his 2014 Google Glasses (remember Google Glasses?!?) advert. Likely to be around for a while, Searching is the latest example of how strong a 'screen movie' can be.
We enjoyed it, but part of that was, that being a few years older than the average cinema goer, the use of technology fascinated us. Maybe to a younger audience it may seem run of the mill. Some nice touches in the plot too, and it did bring home that really we haven't got a clue who our own children really are. The end was a little contrived, but imho, the film was different and held us to the end.. that's rare.
Recommended.
