On July 16, 1999, we were all introduced to “The Blair Witch Project,” an experimental piece that changed the face of cinema, particularly the horror genre, with its utilization of the “found footage” format of filmmaking, bringing with it an immersive, often grounded sense of realism. But nowadays, with some notable exceptions, the found footage genre has become a sort of gimmick and joke that we have grown tired of. With horror films experiencing a sort of resurgence in recent years, it was inevitable for someone to shake the foundation of the horror genre once again.
Now comes in producer Timur Bekmambetov and the Screenlife format, which introduces the concept of setting the entirety of the film on a desktop screen and never introducing a third-person perspective. While Bekmambetov introduced the concept with the “Unfriended” series, his newest film “Searching” is the film that takes full advantage of the concept and uses it to develop a clever, immersive mystery-thriller that keeps you guessing till the very end.
David Kim (John Cho) has difficulty trying to connect with his daughter Margot (Michelle La) after the passing of her mother. But things get even more difficult when Margot mysteriously goes missing, prompting David to utilize everything tool at his disposal to find her. With the help of Detective Vick (Debra Messing), David uncovers shocking truths and revelations as well as realizes that he never really knew his daughter.
Much like the found footage film, the Screenlife format could’ve easily acted as more of a publicity stunt than a useful tool for storytelling. In other words, director Aneesh Chaganty could’ve very easily relied more on the concept itself than on an actual story and characters. But rather than turn it into a gimmick, Chaganty uses the Screenlife format to its full potential, essentially enhancing the movie-going experience. “Searching” perfectly exemplifies the full power of the internet. Throughout the entirety of the film, John Cho is utilizing every app and every bit of software he possesses in order to track down his missing daughter. The amount of detail put into the devices, websites, and apps he uses is very impressive.
There are numerous features often associated with each respective website and app that we the audience can relate to and that forces us to engage more with the story. We feel like we’re there with David, trying to help fin his daughter. Because it’s presented as if it’s completely from our own perspective, via a desktop screen, we’re forced to tag along on the mystery and become detectives ourselves, looking through every news article, every photo, and every Microsoft/Adobe file on screen in order to solve the mystery.
Chaganty rarely utilizes exposition in order to tell the story or develop the mystery. Instead, he leaves behind bread crumbs for us to follow and forces us to focus all our attention on those bread crumbs on the screen and come up with our own theories and ideas. The only issue I have with the film is that the ending does require a bit of a leap in logic and does remove much of the grounded realism I was experiencing for the most part. It also essentially becomes nothing but an exposition dump for the most part, thus removing some of the suspense and intrigue.
But asides from being a very investing mystery, the film also acts as an examination of the kinds of personalities we popularize or promote on the internet. David is unable to connect with his daughter Margot, but still thought he knows her enough. But even though her texts, videos, and photos show one side of Margot, as David searches deeper for her whereabouts, he discovers he didn’t know a single thing about his daughter as there was clearly a lot more going on with her.
This movie wouldn’t work on the same level as it does without having someone relatable and sympathetic to connect with, and John Cho was perfectly cast at the center of this mystery. Cho traverses back and forth between sympathy and relatability and anxiety and panic. This is difficult given how he mostly interacts on his own with his desktop. Because of this, Chaganty needed to develop a sort of symbiotic relationship between him and his devices, and it works tremendously. The rest of the supporting cast do a splendid job as well, but this is clearly John Cho’s movie, and he carries it through and through.
“Searching” uses its unique format to amplify the mystery and intrigue of the story while also forcing the audience to act as detectives themselves. John Cho makes up the heart of the story and drives the emotion to the very end. The story acts as an exhilarating mystery-thriller with clever twists and turns around every corner while also examining the introverted nature of our presence in the digital world of the internet, with how we exhibit one identity on the internet while also hiding who we really are behind the screen. “Searching” is a unique work of suspense and drama that’ll leave you guessing till the very end.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ro9ebQxEOY&t=1s&w=585