Searching. (15.)
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty.
Starring John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michelle La and Sarah Sohn. 101 mins.
The digital age has changed everything, except anything at all. Searching is an eager little stunt thriller, the gimmick being it takes place entirely on monitor screens. After his daughter goes missing, distraught father (Cho) has to trawl through her data footprint for clues as to what might have happened. He thought he knew her, but maybe he knew nothing at all.
Searching starts well enough, executing its gimmick effectively. There is a claustrophobic intensity to everything playing out on a 17-inch screen and the film teases the prospect of showing just how deeply the internet has cut into human relationship, how human interactions are being twisted and fractured to suit its algorithms. But the longer it goes on, the more everything seems the same. (The trick of all a film being on a screen isn't original either: Unfriended did it three years back.) The plot moves into thriller convention, teasing us as to what kind of mystery it is – a murder or a disappearance. Its catch of red herrings must be one of the largest in recent years. The film begins to bend the rules on what can be included and when that includes news footage streams and surveillance camera footage it all begins to look a bit found footage.
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty.
Starring John Cho, Debra Messing, Joseph Lee, Michelle La and Sarah Sohn. 101 mins.
The digital age has changed everything, except anything at all. Searching is an eager little stunt thriller, the gimmick being it takes place entirely on monitor screens. After his daughter goes missing, distraught father (Cho) has to trawl through her data footprint for clues as to what might have happened. He thought he knew her, but maybe he knew nothing at all.
Searching starts well enough, executing its gimmick effectively. There is a claustrophobic intensity to everything playing out on a 17-inch screen and the film teases the prospect of showing just how deeply the internet has cut into human relationship, how human interactions are being twisted and fractured to suit its algorithms. But the longer it goes on, the more everything seems the same. (The trick of all a film being on a screen isn't original either: Unfriended did it three years back.) The plot moves into thriller convention, teasing us as to what kind of mystery it is – a murder or a disappearance. Its catch of red herrings must be one of the largest in recent years. The film begins to bend the rules on what can be included and when that includes news footage streams and surveillance camera footage it all begins to look a bit found footage.
