Searching



‘I’m proud of you’ – David Kim

I originally was really excited to see the film ‘Searching’ because of how well put together the trailer was but after watching it I was left very underwhelmed by the film.

In January, the thriller did well in Sundance Film Festival, claiming the NEXT Audience Award, Amazon Studio Narrative Producer Award in addition to the Alfred Sloan Feature Film Prize awarded to films that focus on science and technology as a theme.

The latter accolade comes as no surprise as the entire film was shot from only computers and smartphones which for me was the main cause of tension and suspense in the film because there were times that it felt that as a viewer I was ahead of the action and wanted to warn the characters particularly David Kim (John Cho). Plus, every time a screen went dark I would fear what was to come next. Sadly, these moments were much scarier and shocking to me than many of the revelations in the film, though there were quite a few twists in the film; I neither found many of them to be predictable nor felt there were any standout moments.

It’s evident that I am alone in this train of thought as the film has received good ratings in the United States after its August 24th release, which isn’t that surprising to me due to the overall narrative but I still believe that the execution could be improved. For instance, there were moments in the film that I thought it was going to take the direction of ‘Gone Girl’ but it never fully went in that direction. With that element I feel the genre of thriller could have been much more prominent and impactful.

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