if you’re searching for a taut thriller told in a novel way, look no further than Searching.
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Who would pay money to go to a cinema and watch their laptop screen? As it turns out in the case of Unfriended, 64 million dollars’ worth. Hot on its heels comes Searching, a film about a father trying to find his daughter with the help of a police officer and his ambivalent city.
The film is told entirely through smartphones and computer screens, a new storytelling aesthetic borne out of Web 2.0 dubbed “Screenlife”. Peeling off the veneer of traditional cinematic grammar, the movie takes advantage of technology’s quirks and nuances to convey depth, tension and drama. Never have I been more frustrated at a loading screen. (You’ll know it when you see it. The whole cinema gasped.) It’s still early times for this new genre, but if Searching is anything to go by, we have every reason to be excited.
Starring John Cho and Debra Messing, we have in our hands a story that seems to be yet another rearrangement of a plot like Taken. Except, it isn’t. The first character’s development that unravels side by side with the evolution of the personal computer is a clever artistic choice, one of many more. In fact, the familiarity of the digital landscape at no point feels tiresome. Clues are riddled all across the scene for the persistently curious viewer. The pacing rarely lags, with the simple but effective stakes of a father who’s learning he may not really even know his daughter. There’s not a lot to say about the technical merits here, other than a sparse but strong score and methodically precise manner of editing that shows just enough for us to keep watching.
Culturally relevant and dramatically resonant given the hyper-digital age we live in, if you’re searching for a taut thriller told in a novel way, look no further than Searching.
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