Searching

When Searching was initially annouced I was excited, a John Cho straight role and in that unique presentation style? Count me in, this was on paper destined to be something special.

Sadly whenever I hype a movie up like this they tend to fall flat, but not Searching. No, no Searching lived up to my high expectations and the John Cho movie demonstrated that this is one of those guys like Ryan Reynolds and Will Smith who truly can do it all.

The whole movie plays out through pc windows and camera footage. Yes it has been done before with the likes of Unfriended (2014) but they took the concept to the next level here and it works considerably better than you'd imagine.

John Cho delivers an emotional tour de force with some of the best written material I've seen in years. It's so clever, so intricate and just when you think you've got it all figured out another spanner is thrown into the works to make you re-evaluate everything you've seen so far.

As I'm getting older I'm becoming a harsher critic because I've seen everything before. Movies like Searching reaffirm my faith in the industry, it's fresh, it's fascinating and doesn't fall for any of the usual Hollywood tropes.

By far Searching is the best film I've seen in a longtime, a true unconditional triumph and I applaud everyone involved. Outstanding!

The Good:

Very unique cinematography

Powerful performance by Cho

Incredibly smart writing

The Bad:

Nothing springs to mind

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

There is hope for Hollywood yet

John Cho is one of the most underappreciated actors in the industry

This film got it right in the technology department. All real websites, technology and actual examples of how you can search the internet to find information. They had to get this right and as an avid tech enthusiastic i was pleased that they did.

The storyline was well written, had twists and turns that i did not expect. Decent movie!

A story told entirely through a character's laptop screen - it's an increasingly popular gimmick that's now been done enough times that it can no longer be called fresh. But, thankfully, this is best execution of the style to date. Aneesh Chaganty dazzles in his directorial debut, displaying a mastery of the medium, crafting a compelling film narrative told entirely through someone's laptop activity.

The movie comes out hot with a mostly nonverbal tale of love and family that's shades of 'Up' and nearly as affecting. An emotionally warping scene like that to kick things off lets us know immediately that we're in good hands. The music choices give a strong signal of this as well. I firmly believe that music choices in the opening minutes of movies are as reliable an indicator of the movie's quality as you'll find.

This moving love story tells that us the family is close, or, at least they were before mom died. Now dad David (John Cho) is raising his daughter Margot (Michelle La) as well he can, but they seem a bit distant. When Margot mysteriously goes missing, he finds out just how little he knows about his daughter.

He and police detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) scramble to find out what happened to Margot - was she kidnapped, catfished, or did she runaway? The work they put in to unravel this mystery is frantic and exhausting. They track Margot's car on traffic cams, they contact all of her Facebook friends, and they dig for anything of use they can find on her laptop. The level of detail displayed in the investigation is so thorough that it's as much an education in snooping as it is entertainment (not that parents should follow these steps to snoop on their own kids!)

It's a constant thrill ride throughout, even as conventional storytelling techniques seep through the cracks at the end when the laptop screen gimmick proves too challenging. One answered question leads to five more unanswered, and a few false endings and twists will leave you breathless. In movies, there are twists and then there are TWISTS. "Searching" has TWISTS. Enjoy.

I was just utterly entertained and delighted by this film. Because it was just SO well done.

It's innovative cinematography was not presented at the sacrifice of a well-crafted and compelling story. Unlike the Blair Witch Project, these filmmakers put as much time and care into their story as they did with this method of filming. They could have honestly filmed this in the traditional way and it would have still been a worthwhile movie outing. This was indeed a solid work of art.

Even with so many moments absent of dialogue or even human characters to watch, the film was always forward moving. The suspense and mystery continuously builds until the very last moments.

There were so many twists and turns, they made it impossible to truly predict what was going on. At one point we predicted one thing that did unfold but we were almost immediately surprised by another new turn.

There was a story, there was substance, there was intrigue, there was heart. And there wasn't a thing presented in the film that did not contribute to the story.

They made my heart break and my heart leap. Made me hold my breath and exclaim with surprise. Made me smile...even made me reminisce a little (due to my particular age).

John Cho delivers yet another excellent performance. It was a refreshing role to see him play. He just broke my heart the whole film. I just wanted to reach out and hug him!

It was also extremely refreshing to see Debra Messing in this type of role. Nothing I'd EVER seen her do and she was just great.

Great cast, in general, tho very small, given the story was told so exclusively from the father's perspective.

I really could just go on and on about this movie that I had oddly never heard of...very undoubtedly a hidden gem in the theatres right now.

I 100% recommend taking a trip to the theatre for this one.

I was not planning on watching this but I saw the high rating on imdb and considering how bad most movies with this gimmick are it peaked my interest that people actually like this one. I am very surprised at just how good this movie was. I went in with low expectations despite how well received it was but this movie really did it right.

First thing first, they managed to get the internet right, or atleast as right as you can expect a movie to get it. It featured mostly real websites and stayed within the limits of reality when it comes to his snooping around the internet for clues.

Secondly the pacing is pretty good too with a solid story that keeps you engaged and offers surprises throughout.

While not the best acted movie, the acting is certainly solid enough to get through the movie and they manage to make you care about the characters in a short amount of time.

Overall I'm pleasently surprised and the high rating is a combination of the solid story and that fact someone managed to finally pull off this concept correctly. It definitely earned a bonus point for its uniqueness and willingness to be something different.