
Do you remember life before we all had cell phones, much less smart phones? In these times, it is almost a life emergency if you phone breaks or gets lost to the point where even I have felt scared and helpless when my phone gets misplaced. They have almost taken over our everyday lives, and it is seen to the extreme of how families are all buried in their phones at meals and not even talking to each other. However, they can be a tool for unlocking mysteries as well.
“Searching” is the new film directed by Aneesh Chaganty (Monsters) and stars John Cho (Star Trek), Michelle La (Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life), Debra Messing (Will and Grace), Joseph Lee (Lion), Sara Sohn (Sense 8), Dominic Hoffman (The Shield), and Melissa Disney (Deadpool). Based around the Kim family of David (Cho), Pamela (Sohn) and Margot (La), David and Margot are living life the best they can after wife and mother Pamela passes away from cancer. One night, Margot does not come home and after some searching, David calls in a missing person’s report which enlists Detective Vick (Messing) to the case. David is able to get into Margot’s computer and social media accounts, and what follows is the journey to figure out what happened to Margot that night.
This film is different in the fact that it is done entirely through the electronic correspondence between the characters via the phone, unlike films like “Unfriended: Dark Web,” where most of the scenes are done through the computer. I found it inventive, but it got a little too much for me. Most of the film basically comes from Cho, La, Messing and Lee, who do fine.
At about an hour and forty-five minutes long, it is paced well for the type of film that is not a scary film, but more of a thriller. Unfortunately, it tries to be a film that wants its audience to look deeper to find the clues, but I think it failed in that aspect a bit. There are a few good twists and turns, but not enough for what they were trying to do, so I will recommend this film as a RedBox rental.