Searching (film)

Searching
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty
Produced by
Written by
  • Aneesh Chaganty
  • Sev Ohanian
Starring
Music by Torin Borrowdale
Cinematography Juan Sebastian Baron
Edited by
  • Nick Johnson
  • Will Merrick
Production
company
Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • January 21, 2018 (2018-01-21) (Sundance)
  • August 24, 2018 (2018-08-24) (United States)
Running time
 102 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $65.2 million[1]

Searching is a 2018 American thriller film directed by Aneesh Chaganty and written by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian. Set entirely on smartphones and computer screens, the film follows a father (John Cho) trying to find his missing 16-year-old daughter (Michelle La) with the help of a police detective (Debra Messing). It was the first mainstream Hollywood thriller headlined by an Asian-American actor.[2][3]

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on August 24, 2018, by Screen Gems. It has grossed over $65 million worldwide and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the acting, screenplay, and visual execution.

Plot

In San Jose, California, David Kim looks through old photographs and videos of his daughter Margot and his late wife Pamela, who died from lymphoma nearly two years ago, after which David and Margot became distant. One night, Margot goes to a friend's house for her study-group. While David sleeps, Margot attempts to call him three times. The next morning, David is unable to reach Margot but assumes she has risen early and gone to school. Later, he calls Margot's piano instructor, but is informed that Margot had cancelled her lessons six months ago. David discovers that Margot had been pocketing the money for the lessons, before suddenly transferring $2,500 to a deleted account on Venmo. Realizing that Margot is missing, David calls the police, and the case is assigned to Detective Rosemary Vick, who asks for information about Margot's personality and friendships. David manages to access Margot's Facebook and speaks to her contacts, but discovers that Margot has not had close friends since Pamela's death. Vick calls to report that Margot made a fake ID for herself, and shows traffic-camera footage of Margot's car at a highway-juncture outside of the city, suggesting that Margot may have deliberately run away.

David, unconvinced, discovers that Margot has been using a "vlogging" site called YouCast and that she frequently spoke to a working-class girl named fish_n_chips. Vick investigates this, and reports back that fish_n_chips is innocent, having been sighted in Pittsburgh. From Margot's Instagram, David finds that Margot frequently visited Barbosa Lake, which is near the highway-juncture. He drives to the lake and finds Margot's Pokemon keychain on the ground. The police arrive and discover Margot's car underwater and an envelope containing $2,500. A sweep of the surrounding area is conducted by the police and volunteers, but a thunderstorm slows the progress. Margot's body, however, is not found. David reviews the crime-scene photographs and notices his brother Peter's jacket in the car. He then discovers text messages between Peter and Margot suggesting that they were having an affair. When David drives to Peter's house to confront him, the latter explains that they were smoking marijuana together, and accuses David of being an incompetent father who did not notice that his daughter was suffering from depression. The meeting is interrupted when Vick calls David, telling him that a former convict named Randy Cartoff has confessed in an online video to sexually assaulting and killing Margot, afterwards seemingly killing himself. An empty-casket funeral is arranged for Margot. As David is uploading photographs to a funerary video service, he notices that the website's stock photograph features the same woman as fish_n_chips's profile-picture, implying that fish_n_chips is a false identity. Attempting to call Vick to report this, David instead reaches a dispatcher who inadvertently reveals that she volunteered to take the case, rather than was assigned to it. David searches for Vick using Google and finds that Vick knew Cartoff through a volunteer program for ex-convicts. He proceeds to report this to the sheriff, and at the funeral, Vick is arrested.

A few days later, Vick has agreed to confess to murder and other crimes in exchange for leniency toward her son Robert, who was using the online identity fish_n_chips to get close to Margot, as he was attracted to her. When Margot sent Robert $2,500, thinking that Robert was a working-class girl whose mother was hospitalized, Robert felt guilty and decided to confront Margot at the lake, during which they fought and Robert pushed Margot off a fifty-foot ravine. Vick decided to cover up the incident, shoving the car into the lake and falsifying the story of the fake ID and of fish_n_chips in Pittsburgh. When David found the car, thereby invalidating the story of Margot having run away, Vick was forced to turn Cartoff into a scapegoat. The film then jumps back to Vick right after being arrested. As she is being transported to the jail, David asks her where Margot's body is, and Vick responds that Margot is in the ravine, and that even if she had survived the fall, she couldn't have lived without water for five days. David tells the police to turn the car around, pointing out that a storm occurred on the third day which would have provided Margot with water. At the ravine, the rescue crew discovers Margot severely injured but alive. Two years later, Margot is shown to have applied for college to major in piano, with her status as pending. Photographs and textual conversations show that the relationship between David and Margot has considerably improved.

Cast

  • John Cho as David Kim, Pamela Nam's husband and Margot's father
  • Michelle La as Margot Kim, the daughter of David and Pamela Kim
    • Kya Dawn Lau as 9-year-old Margot Kim
    • Megan Liu as 7-year-old Margot Kim
    • Alex Jayne Go as 5-year-old Margot Kim
  • Debra Messing as Detective Rosemary Vick
  • Sara Sohn as Pamela Nam Kim, David's wife and Margot's mother
  • Joseph Lee as Peter Kim, David's brother
  • Steven Michael Eich as Robert Vick, Detective Vick's son
  • Ric Sarabia as Randy Cartoff
  • Sean O'Bryan as Radio Jockey

Release

The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2018.[4] Shortly after, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired distribution rights to the film for $5 million.[5] It was initially scheduled to be released on August 3, 2018, but was pushed back to a limited release on August 24, 2018, before opening wide on August 31, 2018.[6][7]

Reception

Box office

As of October 11, 2018, Searching has grossed $25.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $39.4 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $65.2 million.[1]

Searching debuted to $388,769 from nine theaters in its limited opening weekend, for a per-venue average of $43,197.[8] It expanded to 1,207 theaters on August 31, and was projected to gross $3 million over the weekend. It ended up making $6.1 million (including $7.6 million over the four-day Labor Day frame), finishing fourth at the box office.[9] In its second weekend of wide release, the film was added to an additional 802 theaters, and grossed $4.5 million, finishing fifth.[10] It then made another $3.2 million in its third week of wide release.[11]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 189 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Searching's timely premise and original execution are further bolstered by well-rounded characters brought to life by a talented cast."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 78% overall positive score.[9]

Variety's Peter Debruge called the film "so unique in its approach that Sundance can only program something of its kind once before the gimmick gets old."[14] Kate Erbland of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "B+" and called it "a true storytelling feat, married with sharp editing that makes the entire effort not only seamless, but also wholly intuitive," also saying, "Aneesh Chaganty's drama transcends its gimmick, offering up a smart and refreshing spin on movies that literally play out on small screens."[15] Screen Rant's Chris Agar gave the film four out of five stars, and summed it up as "a suspenseful drama, buoyed by its innovative film making style and collection of strong performaces by its leads." He added, "Even if Searching didn't make effective use of its technology angle, the core story would still work due to Chagnaty's script, which packs an emotional punch from its first moments and never holds back."[16]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone complimented, "director Aneesh Chaganty, in an exceptional feature debut, does the impossible, building a high-voltage, white-knuckle thriller told almost exclusively through smartphones, laptop screens, browser windows and surveillance footage. Searching is a technical marvel with a beating heart at its core, which makes all the difference," and concluded, "In tandem with co-writer Sev Ohanian and wizard editors Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, Chaganty keeps the movie sparking with twists the audience never sees coming. Do we pay a price for living our lives on screens? Is the price worth it? As it should, Searching leaves you with questions that'll keep you up at night." He also rated the film four out of five stars.[17] Aisha Harris of The New York Times wrote, "While a somewhat silly reveal in the final act feels ripped from a Law & Order episode, the combination of clever concept reflecting the prevalence of screens in everyday life, and the pleasure of watching a typically underused Mr. Cho take on a meaty lead role make Searching a satisfying psychological thriller."[18]

News18 India's Rajeev Masand stated, "it's difficult to talk about the plot in any detail for fear of ruining the tension and its multiple twists," though "Chaganty has elevated a standard missing-person drama into something quite extraordinary on the strength of his inventive storytelling... Searching works as a cautionary tale about the possible horrors of technology and the Internet. But it is as much about unconditional, unreasonable parental love." He rated the film four out of five.[19] Mihir Fadnavis of Firstpost wrote, "this is a very exciting film that needs to be seen on the big screen and one that seems like an avenue into what the future of cinema could be," praising, "Producer Timur Bekmambetov has backed something that works, and surely the process of making Searching has created some sort of a blueprint to make more films like this more easily at a much faster pace." He also rated the film four out of five.[20]

Accolades

References

  1. 1 2 "Searching (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
  2. ↑ Loughrey, Clarisse (August 27, 2018). "John Cho interview: How he became a cheerleader for cinema's newest genre". the Independent. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ General, Ryan (July 25, 2018). "John Cho Makes History as the First Asian Actor Leading a Hollywood Thriller in 'Searching'". NextShark. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  4. ↑ "2018 Sundance Film Festival: Feature Films Announced". Sundance Film Festival. November 29, 2017. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  5. ↑ Lang, Brent (January 22, 2018). "Sundance: John Cho's 'Search' Sells to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions". Variety. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  6. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 16, 2018). "Screen Gems Adds John Cho-Debra Messing Thriller 'Searching' To August Schedule". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  7. ↑ Pederson, Erik (July 18, 2018). "Sony Moves Tarantino's Manson Pic, Dates 'Zombieland 2' & 'Little Women'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (August 26, 2018). "'Why 'Happytime Murders' Reps A Solo Career B.O. Low For Melissa McCarthy In A 'Crazy Rich' Weekend – Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  9. 1 2 D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 2, 2018). "'Crazy Rich Asians' Accumulates Wealth Over Labor Day With $116M+ Total; Bigger Than 'The Help' & 'The Butler'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 2, 2018.
  10. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 9, 2018). "'The Nun' Hits The Hallelujah With $54M Opening, Best Ever In 'Conjuring' Universe – Sunday AM Update". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 9, 2018.
  11. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 16, 2018). "Why 'The Predator' Is Shorter Than 'Predators' At $24M & 'White Boy Rick' So Pale At $8M+ – Sunday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Business Media. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Searching (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  13. ↑ "Searching Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved September 17, 2018.
  14. ↑ Debruge, Peter (January 29, 2018). "'Searching' Review — Variety Critic's Pick". Variety. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  15. ↑ Erbland, Kate (January 27, 2018). "'Search' Review: John Cho Stars In Thrilling Abduction Drama That Exists Entirely on a Computer Screen — Sundance 2018". IndieWire. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  16. ↑ Agar, Chris (August 31, 2018). "Searching Review: John Cho Shines In Suspenseful Tech Thriller". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  17. ↑ Travers, Peter (August 22, 2018). "'Searching' Review: High-Tech Thriller Delivers Old-Fashioned Chills". Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  18. ↑ Harris, Aisha (August 23, 2018). "Review: In 'Searching,' a Clever Conceit and John Cho as Leading Man". The New York Times. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  19. ↑ Masand, Rajeev (September 1, 2018). "Searching Movie Review: Aneesh Chaganty Directorial is Like Taken Without Guns, But Better". News18 India. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  20. ↑ Fadnavi, Mihir (August 30, 2018). "Searching movie review: This investigative thriller is an astonishingly assured debut by director Aneesh Chaganty". Firstpost. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  21. ↑ Pedersen, Erik (January 23, 2018). "'Search' Wins Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Film Prize – Sundance". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
  22. ↑ "'18 Sundance Film Festival - Award Winners". Sundance Film Festival. Retrieved February 14, 2018.
  23. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (January 22, 2018). "'Search's Sev Ohanian Wins Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 5, 2018.
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