Searching (2018)

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty

Viewed In Theatre

 

Summary: A young woman goes missing and her father tries desperately to find her in this insanely tense and emotional thriller.

 

I remember many months ago when I was seeing a movie, I forget which one, and one of the trailers started playing that I hadn’t seen before. I was vaguely aware that a sequel to Unfriended was coming out at this time so when I saw that this new movie was a screen based thriller I just assumed this was going to be that sequel, and that surprised me a bit because the trailer that I saw that day was actually intriguing. I kind of forgot about that trailer for a bit, those damn dog movies have done a number on my brain, so when I saw the trailer again a few weeks ago I remembered how excited I was to see some a movie done in this style that might be good. Although Unfriended 2 was generally disappointing I left that theatre hoping that someone might capitalize on this new style of found footage movies and make a movie that exemplified why this style could work and how good these kinds of movies could be. My hopes have been answered remarkably quickly, because Searching is that movie.

As this is a twists and turns thriller I’ll just give a brief premise summary so as to avoid getting into spoiler territory. Searching is about a small family, David Kim and his daughter Margot Kim. After a study session one night, Margot doesn’t come home, which worries David quite a bit. Checking in with some classmates immediately, David is led to believe that Margot is simply out with friends, but as soon as David realises that no one actually knows where Margot is, he files a missing person’s report with the police and meets the detective who leads the investigation. Digging deeper into Margot’s life, David begins to learn that he didn’t know his daughter as well as he thought he did, but he will have to try and piece things together to find Margot.

The premise of the movie isn’t anything really groundbreaking, there have been tons of movies and TV series about someone going missing or dying and then a family member learns things about them that they never knew which changes their perception of them, but it is in the execution that this movie really shines. John Cho plays David Kim and he puts in the performance of his career, completely selling David as a well meaning parent who begins to lose his grip while he goes further and further down this insane rabbit hole trying to unravel this mystery. Cho perfectly ratchets up the intensity and desperation as the movie goes on, matching that with sadness and guilt and it really is what makes this movie so effective. I can’t imagine how this movie would have turned out if David was played by anyone who wasn’t ready to give all they had for this role, especially because David is onscreen for probably more than 90% of the movie. Everyone else is also good, Debra Messing plays Detective Rosemary Vick quite well and so does Michelle La as Margot, but the rest of the cast is a bit more subdued, which makes sense because the main story is about this change in David as he’s desperately trying to find his daughter. All of the character here are completely understandable and well developed, making it incredibly easy to become invested in what is going on. Not every single character is developed, but even those who aren’t really explored that much are still given traits that can be used to extrapolate some idea of who they are outside of their scenes.

Along with the performances, the pacing is another major success for this movie. Searching seemed to just fly by, in the best way possible. Scenes were never overlong, but they were also never cut short, which is how a lot of movies would try to make things seem more exciting than they actually are.  They realized that this movie didn’t need it though, as the mystery and tension of the situation keeps you so invested that you’re always just waiting for the next scene to start so you can get the next clue and try and figure out what is going on before the movie tells you. One of the more clever things this movie does is that it smartly undercuts its own drama, very rarely, by having a humorous moment to defuse the tension. It only happens a few times and is never obnoxious, it is done in a smart way to avoid the entire movie having one tone and just a continuous ratcheting up of tension, letting people breathe and get reinvested after they’ve bought back into its tension. And a lot of this tension is based on one interesting point, and that is that this movie understands why the internet is creepy.

Unlike the Unfriended movies, which focus on cyberbullying (and ghosts) and the dark web, Searching shines a bit of a spotlight on some of the more mundane aspects of the internet that just suck. After the search for Margot intensifies and David begins to run out of leads he starts checking the internet to see if he can find anything that might lead him in the right direction. During this search he finds a slew of tweets attacking him for his perceived poor parenting to conspiracy theory posts accusing David himself of murdering Margot. It’s a grotesque scene, made even more grotesque by the fact that it is David himself reading all of these horrible comments. As the film goes on more and more of these kinds of moments happen where opportunistic or deranged people/groups try to take advantage of the situation for their own ends and while this is only a small part of the movie it is a much more intelligent take on the subject of fear of the internet than I have seen recently.

Searching is the rare kind of thriller that manages to keep its manic pacing while also managing to keep its emotional core. I really just can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed this movie, it was a fantastic white-knuckled thriller that really kept me engaged and told a wonderful barebones story. Please, just see the movie. If you enjoy any kind of intense thriller then this would surely not disappoint. Also the movie is mildly groundbreaking, as it has been recognized as the first mainstream thriller featuring an Asian lead. So on top of that it is also just a great movie.  And now for something completely different, The Nun!

 

The Nun (2018)

Directed By Corin Hardy

Viewed in Theatre

 

Summary: A few people go to a castle in Romania that has an evil Nun there. Horror does not ensue.

 

Oh god this movie is terrible. Everything about this is just lame and low rent and this should not be shown in theatres. The dialogue is terrible, the locations are boring and the characters are one dimensional. Plentiful jump scares can’t even evoke an emotion because those were dull too. And naturally the audience was just horrendous but I could barely get upset about people talking over every scene or people bringing their kids to the first showing of an R rated horror movie when there was nothing interesting happening on screen. If you want anything intense or emotional please just see Searching.