by Joe Hammerschmidt
By habit, and through the encouragement of a good friend of mine, there are now just some films whose trailers I’ll never touch. Either I wish to go in as cold as possible, or I don’t have much free time to watch a whole bunch of them. The payoff attributed to staying so chaste always depends on the film, and what surprises can spring up unexpectedly. Even after a week has passed, I’m still blown away by what film can still accomplish, by way of directorial creativity. And as the floodgates of the fall prestige season open up once more, goodness knows we need plenty of substance in that department. Searching, the debut feature for USC film grad and former Google staffer Aneesh Chaganty, breaks down the barriers of just what constitutes a formal suspense thriller, telling the story exclusively via our screens, and in many challenging forms. It’s worth looking past the novelty value here, however; the idea of each scene being portrayed through a form of media and NOT breaking that pattern for any reason, from beginning to end, is as daring as it could get. Beneath the visual façade is an intense thriller, headlined by a cast not taking the subject matter too seriously, and unwilling to settle for a substandard ending. Every possible direction taken is never the one Chaganty settles with, taking the viewer on an edge-of-seat journey that must be seen with one’s own eyes.
Right from the start, the film represents the best of our obsession with technology, opening prologue notwithstanding, complete with Windows XP load screens. David Kim (John Cho), wife Pamela (Sara Sohn), and young daughter Margot (Michelle La) begin to embrace the all-reigning majesty of the internet, while it manages to tell the story of their interesting life over 12 or so years of advancements. Not enough to catch up with a fatal cancer diagnosis for their matriarch, dad and kid are sticking it out alone so close to the end of her senior year. He’s a Silicon Valley player, she’s a promising piano prodigy with a slight rebellious streak. All seems normal until a pair of missed calls one late night lead to panic, fury, and an all-out manhunt, with no expenses spared.
While Miss La thrills in her shortened screen time, bookending the film with a cozy sort of air as the doting kid we thought we had known, it’s Cho, the first formal Asian-American lead for a suspense thriller, as the dad many of us would hope for. Unfaltering, dedicated, never ceasing to find answers that would make sense. He’s had a few fair leading parts over the years, going back to Harold and Kumar; yet Searching is something special for the actor, exercising his dramatic chops while refusing to deny his more laidback side. He’s held firmly in line, thankfully, through her police contact during the case, no-nonsense detective Rosemary Vick, played by a fun-to-watch, if not easy to recognize Debra Messing. The more serious of the two, she easily balances out any possible tonal distractions in her determination to solve the case, going places David couldn’t, even as her client opts to go rogue more than once. While their chemistry leaves much to be desired, their randomized butting of heads is at times odd, rather amusing, and even contributes to an ironic self-awareness seen all throughout.
Even as Chaganty utilizes multiple forms of online viewing to keep the audience engaged, Facetime, iMessage, various live streaming news sites, iPhone cameras, hidden nanny cams, and never breaks the fourth wall in the process, there just comes a point, I won’t say where that his film no longer can take itself seriously and just have fun telling its own story. He, with co-writer Sev Ohanian, are seamlessly lily padding between brutal intensity and cackle-worthy satire, if only for lack of foresight in communication, and the media hunger that follows a trending human-interest event. Not quite timely by any account, but no less an accurate cultural reflection that’s just all in the green.
The tech-driven mindset is expressed too well in every single shot, but not just in more traditional cinematography. Juan Sebastian Baron (The House on Pine Street) makes impressive use of the rather minimalist techniques Chaganty insists upon, not once sugarcoating or copping out of the digital aesthetic, more establishing a template for the more determined doPs/editors. A huge amount of kudos should go to Nick Johnson and Will Merrick, credited as “directors of virtual photography”, taking Baron’s raw images and conforming the work, and that of the brave many, adept at conquering the net’s “viral” side to paint that enthralling picture worth at least 1000 keystrokes. While this may be enough to proclaim their work as the future of filmmaking, such mind-blowing creativity may help chip away the hidden restrictions that plenty of ardent cinephiles may use. Do keep one’s ears open as well, much like the film’s ingenious editing, Torin Borrowdale’s (The Midnight Man) intense yet intelligent underscore may be just as award-worthy and fitting in its own special manner. Much of it being piano-driven, it tickles the humanity aspect ever so precisely but doesn’t skimp on committing as many instruments as possible when everything’s literally on the line for both leads.
As emphasized in an apparently boilerplate prologue by Chaganty, shown to our screening audience, Searching is a considerable game-changer, possibly groundbreaking as many have pointed out. I wouldn’t discount any of that, or its breakthrough in storytelling, in photographic and editorial strengths, or in its present relevance, complete with a naturally diverse cast. Yes, we do have Crazy Rich Asians blowing up the box office, so the timing of this thriller with Asian-American leads may be considered small potatoes. Nonetheless, it ought to contribute to the victory. Aside from that, Chaganty is in really good company in terms of unbelievable feature debuts in 2018, alongside Kay Cannon, Boots Riley, and perhaps in a few weeks, Bradley Cooper? All my words are only descriptive factors to justify why this film belongs in our public consciousness, so hopefully, it will do its job. Searching must be seen in a theater with as receptive an audience as possible, one that can pick up on its off-the-cuff integrity, as well as its accidental satire, and its approach to parenting. Not a bad first go for someone who seriously chose his life’s goals over a steady career and won out huge. Not bad at all. (A-)
Searching opens in wide release this weekend, rated PG-13 for thematic content, some drug and sexual references, and for language; 102 minutes.
