Searching (2018)

★★★
Searching (2018) is a thriller that takes place entirely on a computer monitor. It is not the first of its kind—Unfriended came out in 2014, and that wasn't even the first—but it is a superior example of a genre on the rise. The potential for storytelling in the so-called screenlife format has yet to be fully tapped, but these early examples prove that the sky's the limit, or in this case, the internet's the limit. Here is a film that ingeniously uses websites, software, applications and cameras to tell the tale. Not only that, but the movie even conveys emotion through mouse clicks and keyboard entry actions. When a character hesitates, this act manifests not through facial gestures but through a cursor and the backspace key. Watching this movie was a thrill.

John Cho stars as David Kim, a single father raising his daughter Margot (Michelle La). One night, she attempts to call him, but he doesn't answer. The next day, he can't reach her, and she isn't where she should be, so he reports her as missing. Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is assigned to the case and begins her investigation. His interactions are conducted via video chat. While she conducts the search, he starts going through her accounts to find clues to her whereabouts. He searches her chats, gains access to her email and eventually discovers a website called YouCast that she used to post short videos of herself similarly to the defunct Tout.com. He eventually discovers a friendship between his daughter and someone named fish_n_chips, a girl from Pittsburgh who may know something of the disappearance.

David uncovers more secrets. The money he had been giving her for piano lessons was secretly sent to fish_n_chips to pay hospital bills. In fact, Margot had quit her piano lessons six months prior without David's knowledge. As David goes through more and more clues, he learns Margot's mother's death affected her more than she originally revealed. Additional developments follow that make the situation even more confusing and suggest that Margot may have run away and wasn't kidnapped. David, undeterred, keeps pressing forward, using his computer, phone and the internet in a variety of innovative ways to stay on Margot's trail and learn the truth.

The screenplay by Sev Ohanian and director Aneesh Chaganty lays out a maze-like plot that features more twists and turns as every minute passes. The screen is filled with windows, texts, pictures and videos, but it's all organized well enough for us to process the information. The action isn't situated strictly on David's computer. He takes his phone with him to investigate leads and sets it up to record the action. No matter what happens, we have a window into this world to see the plot unfold. David uses a variety of tools like streaming videos, news broadcasts, chat boxes and hidden cameras to get to the truth, and we see everything through these devices. It's remarkable how clear the story progress despite the multitude of media present at once.

Many conversations take place by typing, yet we see enough of David's desperation to know the emotion behind the typing. This is quite an accomplishment. When David stops typing, when he backspaces to make an angry remark more civil, we know why he's doing it. Searching is a taut thriller with imagination. It makes me want to see more screenlife movies just so I can see how directors can make them different from one another. The monitor limits the action, but if the story and use of technology are intriguing, then even a movie in which everything we see is limited to a monitor can be just as compelling as anything taking place beyond those confines.

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