Review of Searching (2018) by Tor M — 19 Jan 2019

I believe this is Aneesh Chaganty's first full lenght feature and it's a fresh one. John Cho is the only big actor here and there are few characters in total. Cho is playing the dad. After his wife died he has been taking care of they're daughter, but when she suddenly disappears the game is on.

We goes trough this film mostly online. If it's not told by the screen of a computer, it's TV or phones, cameras or old videos. This is a very nice touch and the fact that it's actually working is pretty amazing. It sounds very unwatchable, but as people dig the net and other information bits for clues we go fully into the story ourselves. It's like you are in front of the computer - snooking around for stuff.

There are many great turns and twists here. They are smart and I never saw them comming - still they made sense after small hints are placed but not really catched - the way I like my hints for twists. I like the acting and the story, it's a bit to "heroic" from the dad's side at times, and some happenigns seem a bit unrealistic, but I left the film pleased without many questions or anoying loose threads. It's pretty high-tech, but a person with mediocre plus computer knowledge should hang on to it reather easily.

I expected the film to be OK, but it was actually great and it's been a while since a film made me sink in so deep as this one did. This film has great storytelling and a fair amount of suspence.

8 out of 10 browser tabs.