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The movie, Searching exemplifies the social media zeitgeist

In 1999, a sleeper hit like The Blair Witch Project spawned a genre that continues to act as a wellspring for brilliant DIY cinema: found-footage horror. Indian-American filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty has given this a much-needed millennial twist in his fantastic debut film, Searching.

The entire movie, about a father, David Kim (John Cho), searching for his missing 16-year-old daughter, Margot (Michelle La), is narrated completely through a plethora of modern-day communication media: FaceTime, MacBook screens, vlogs, live streaming from TV channels’ websites.

Chaganty has made a movie that exemplifies the social media zeitgeist. He starts off beautifully with a Windows XP screen to show how a Korean American family of three was ravaged by the same lethal variant of blood cancer that Margot’s mother died of. Cho excels in the role that demands him to be lovably paternal. The movie takes a dark turn when his daughter goes missing and Chaganty’s masterful use of desktop screens as vantage points is near genius. Debra Messing (detective Rosemary Vick) is assigned the job of finding Margot, whose absence is accentuated by sketchy details like missing piano classes, taking the car out of town and smoking marijuana.

Searching is narrated completely through a plethora of modern-day communication media

Chaganty’s script is The Blair Witch Project-meets-Taken in Gone Girl territory. It is almost surprising that Chaganty barely falters despite manning such a high concept and the result is an expertly crafted edge-of-the-seat thriller. Cho is perfectly cast as the indefatigable father who refuses to give up the search. His sleight of hand on finding incriminating stuff online is fascinating. As the bereaved daughter, Michelle La exudes a dour melancholy coupled with societal repression.

The deadpan flippancy to the proceedings is what makes Searching so engaging. While trying to find out what Tumblr is, Cho finds assurance from Google that his search term “Tumbler” is not what he is looking for. In a text to his daughter, as a last-minute correction, he changes an exclamation mark to a full stop. The world needs more dads who realise that exclamation marks are interpreted as “flaming”.

A Norton anti-virus notification says it’s been 694 days since it was updated, an indication of the passage of time of since David’s wife last logged in. Chaganty, who worked for Google before getting into filmmaking, gives his former employer ample screen time. The whole Google and Apple ecosystems are laid threadbare as a subtle exposition of how much of our personal lives can be accessed through a few keystrokes. There’s a Justin Bieber reference in between that is simply outstanding.

The movie doesn’t ascend to its initially promising Hitchcock levels of suspense because the narrative is thrown off track by a few digressions, chiefly the one involving David’s brother. Also, the climax feels a bit hurried and is tied up just a little too neatly. That said, kudos to Chaganty for making a movie through a medium that might appear gimmicky but one that he makes seem essential. It remains to be seen what Chaganty comes up with next, but Searching indicates he’s a talent as big as Cary Fukunaga.

Like Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, which released a couple of months ago, Searching is also a cautionary tale: that, more than helicopter parenting, the current crop of teenagers needs parents to be an accessible and benign presence in their lives. The movie casts its net wide in this case. There’s a catfish angle and stock photos are used deftly to drive home the point. The father is made to realise that not everything is as it meets the eye.

Juan Sebastian Baron’s cinematography might look one-note, but the unrelenting low lighting makes each scene look doom-laden. The editing by Nick Johnson and Will Merrick deserves a special mention for making the flitting between multiple screens seamless. I hope they don’t get Oscar-robbed next year.

It’s heartening to see Searching raking in $32 million at box offices worldwide, which makes it the third-most significant Asian movie of the year after Crazy Rich Asians and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Let’s hope not just 2018, but every forthcoming year is an Asian year at Hollywood.

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