A father hunts social media and the internet for clues to his daughter's disappearance, but has to ask what if she wasn't abducted? What if she simply ran away?We live in a world where our every action, thought and impulse can be broadcast to the world if we chose (or even if we don't). To therefore see a film where that plays into the hands of people on both sides of the criminal spectrum forces the audience to decide as to which side the fence they sit with regard to personal data protection, as well as tackling the effects of catfishing and leading multiple 'fake' lives online.The story circles around the efforts of a recent widower whose daughter isn't returning his calls and appears to have gone missing in an abduction case; however, her social media and banking accounts leads the police to suspect that maybe she ran away. Not content with the version of events, the desperate father follows his own line of enquiry to attempt to uncover what really happened to her.Since we're looking through the online world for the majority of the time, the film has a lot to say on the vindictive nature of a mass online audience with no moral boundaries or sense of individual responsibility. There are the 'Best Dad' memes, the needlessly speculative neighbours who just want their 15 minutes of fame on NBC, the trending 'dad did it' hashtag, the endless "thoughts and prayers", and the flip-flopping of people, through crocodile tears, who now claim to have been best friends his daughter for the sake of 'views' and 'likes'. The way the film is delivered exclusively via laptop screens - from the revelation of a family tragedy via calendar invites to characters' inner thoughts being typed in a text but then deleted - is one of its top strengths and gives it the draw that keeps the audience 100% engaged up to until the final (incredibly satisfying if exposition-heavy) whodunit reveal. It would be wrong, however, to say it was unique or pioneering; let's not forget that 2014's Unfriended did it to a lesser degree than Searching manages.There will be some people who will hate the way it's presented as being on a PC monitor, who won't like the ending twists, who will despise the use of social media as a plot device. I think they're wrong; it's deeply refreshing to see something new, vibrant and different done so well for a change.Best Quote: "It is the police's job - not yours - to act on flakes of evidence."

If you want 90 minutes of a guy highlighting stuff for the audience like we're morons who can't spot the only thing on the screen, YOU'RE IN FOR A NON-STOP THRILL RIDE.Now, if you're not that impressionable, you'll soon notice how there's close to no content in this movie. Dead-ends that take up a third of the movie, twists that make no sense whatsoever if you listen carefully and of course, the whole point of the movie is that it's all on various computer or phone screens. The thing is, unlike Unfriended which is in real time, this movie is set over a couple of days... which end up showing the character sleeping in front of his open webcam? Or a police officer answering a FaceTime call from a civilian at 2 in the morning? This is just the tip of the iceberg on how very little sense this movie makes by trying to tell a convoluted story with limited fields of imagery.Cho's performance is nothing more (or less) than average, but I can't say the same for the rest of D-list actors in the cast. Everyone seems to be delivering their lowest effort possible, or maybe just don't have the talent to play even the simplest of all roles. You don't care about any of the characters already and that kind of performance doesn't help. I honestly couldn't care less if the daughter was alive or dead, because it really didn't change anything.And as I said in my very first paragraph, the director seems to take his audience for idiots by making sure the character highlights every important clue to try and make some sense of his "twists". I'm not exaggerating when I say the main character does that AT LEAST 30 times over the course of the movie. And if it isn't a highlight, it's the a straight-up ZOOM IN on the detail that needs to be seen, according to the director. An immersive experience would make the whole screen visible and let the viewer find his own clues. This feels like the director taking us by the hand to explain his stupid story.In the end, this movie fails on every single level and doesn't deserve all the praise it's getting (I guess for the fact that it's all on screens, but other movies have done WAY better). Save some money and skip this one, as for the twist isn't even worth the watch. It's barely a twist at all actually, as I said, since it makes no sense if you pay enough attention and don't get distracted by the constant highlighting.One of the worst movies of the year.

I got the opportunity to see an advanced screening of Searching through the Atlanta Film Society and I really enjoyed it! A quick summary, it's about a father, David Kim (John Cho) whose teenage daughter, Margot suddenly disappears and goes missing. David desperately tries to find his daughter by going through her social media and her text messages, and he discovers there was a lot about his daughter that he never knew. The entire movie is filmed in a unique way, by it being presented through computer screens and POV shots. At first, when I saw the trailer, I thought it was going to be another one of those shaky camera, first person type filming (think Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield) and I was pleasantly surprised that it was nothing like that at all. I thought that the film was great. I like who-done-its and this one was done very well. It was excellently written and acted. Aneesh Chaganty does a fantastic job building suspense. What was good about the movie is that there are a lot of surprise twists that keep appearing as the movie progresses. When you watch the film, pay attention to all the little details, because they all build to something and serve a purpose in the film. Overall, I enjoyed the movie tremendously. It was sad, it was funny, and it was suspenseful. I hope this movie does well at the box office.

This is a thriller which can certainly be accurately described as original. It takes a fairly typical suspense story about a recently widowed father whose daughter vanishes one night and presents it in a most unique way. The whole film plays out on the computer screen via programs such as Facetime, iMessage, Gmail, Tumblr, Facebook, etc. In this way, it reflects the reality that so many people now live, given that so many nowadays are literally never off their devices. In this way, the film is completely relevant and taps into a scenario most will be able to clearly identify with. The conceit is also terrific in that it accentuates the mystery element of the story, where we stumble upon clues via the various social media platforms. The very limitations of the set-up ultimately amplify the material and take it to another level. I found it to be one of the most original, gripping and compelling thrillers I have seen in quite a while. Lead actor John Cho must be credited too with giving a strong central performance as the grieving father, with some good additional work from Debra Messing as the detective assigned to the case. All-in-all, a fantastic bit of work.