Missing

I almost did not go see it. It looks so much like the movie Searching that it was a bit of a turn off. Searching stared John Cho as a father looking for his daughter. Missing stars Storm Reid as a daughter looking for her mother. Both characters use the computer to look for these people and are filmed in the preceptive of the camera on the computer. You can say the same thing about action movies or horror movies. But the feel of seeing these characters in nothing but the point of view from a computer camera makes it feel very alike.

In comparison Searching now feels like a warmup to Missing. Missing has got some hardy meat on its bones. Where this movie goes and how it escalates works well and is well orchestrated. It had a great story to it, and it was well acted. The horror element of the movie seemed bigger than Searching. Fear for the characters wellbeing became genuine because of some good set up by some good actors.

It was exciting and fun.

Now this gonna have all girlfriends thinking they private investigators 🙄

Usually, I'm not a big fan of screen-life movies, but Missing effectively displays scenes that don't make it feel like the typical one.

June Grace ( Storm Reid), a teenage girl, investigates her mother's ( Nia Long) disappearance through various technological means, Such as Ring, FaceTime, and Instagram.

The movie gets better as it progresses, building an entertaining sense of thrill as the mystery comes alive with two refreshing plot twists. The film does an adequate job of misdirection. I enjoyed the different perspectives and angles used through various camera approaches, which didn't allow me to focus on the fact that this is viewed through a screen. The movie was active. The portrayal of online activity always being traceable was displayed well.

Verdict: If you like crime mysteries, then you'll enjoy this movie; enjoyable and has a decent enough plot twist to make you feel like it is worth your time. Storm Reid did well!

Grade: C+ Thrill: B Plot: B Execution: C.

I loved Searching (2018) so I was surprised that it was getting a standalone sequel.

For the most part, this is a worthy sequel that retains the great visuals and the compelling mystery of Searching (2018). Storm Reid is the main lead and she gives a great performance. Her character doesn't have a great relationship with her mother and she isn't exactly being great to her. Despite that, the movie gets you to really root for her because you see her desperation and regret once her mother is missing.

I do have a couple of gripes that make me enjoy it less than Searching (2018).

1. I find it hard to believe that the police wouldn't have access to the emails needed for the investigation.

2. Once the reveal happens, I question a lot of the overly complicated plan and the believability of it.

3. I also can't believe Javier has a 2.8 star out of 5 for his service. That guy is an MVP!

Just like Searching (2018), the mystery keeps you gripped with every twist and turn. It's a great mystery worth watching!

I genuinely enjoyed 90% of the film. The idea of having this young woman sleuthing through little more than the apps on her phone and laptop was quite well presented. So much so that, frankly, the scenes set outside that computer setting looked uninspired and slapdash, namely any of the cable news programming and police news conferences. The silly little things we all experience with the internet and social media were solidly, often amusingly, displayed (my favorite perhaps being the slight hesitation deciding whether a front edge of a bumper constitutes part of a yellow school bus in a CAPTCHA picture).

And sure, there are numerous plot holes, mainly due to trying to maintain the mystery (the who?, how?, why? Only come into question after the reveal). But all this can be ignored, as the movie was genuinely engrossing for the majority of the picture. Until... the reveal, which, no spoiler, is sadly predictable. And while I don't entirely object to the nature of the resolution itself, the movie oddly changes pace into a rather pedestrian imitation of an action-thriller. I really wish it had been able to maintain its core atmosphere, and not descend into the ordinary.

Directors Nicholas Johnson and Will Merrick return to the big screen with Missing, a similar albeit much improved rendition of their 2018 film Searching. This time around, they excel at building up tension, allowing the audience to breathe momentarily, and then plunging you right back into the drama with a new discovery. The script demanded plenty from Storm Reid, playing the protagonist June, but the lead actor holds her own, often able to dig deep for the emotionally rich scenes, which tend to come regularly in a movie depicting a voracious girl in a race against time to find her missing mother. But just as important as any actor on the silver screen is the score in the background, and Julian Scherle's score quickly caught my attention and brilliantly helped develop the atmosphere. Although there are aspects of the film that can be considered implausible, I find it difficult to hold that against it. The main character is virtually a Sherlock Holmes-level sleuth, not to mention her uncanny ability to operate a computer at the speed of light. Yet the movie requires those two plot devices in order to move forward. I went into this film with tempered expectations, but I think Johnson and Merrick are starting to get the hang of this fully computer-based movie subgenre.