Film Review: Searching
A Gripping Thriller for the Internet Age
When is a gimmick not a gimmick? Aneesh Chaganty answers this question with his slick and thrilling directing debut Searching, the second film of the summer with Asians in lead roles. A straightforward mystery of a father in search of his missing daughter, Searching is a nimble and sharp story told through the lens of modern technology - the entire film is conveyed through screens, UIs, and cameras. A concept that easily could have come across as cheap and tacky instead elevates the film in ways that are exciting and surprisingly moving. Buoyed by a magnetic John Cho, the film is deeper and more thoughtful than your average cyber-thriller.
Just a few weeks before the release of Searching, Hollywood reached an important milestone with Crazy Rich Asians (which I reviewed here), the first major studio release featuring an all Asian and Asian-American cast in over a decade. Glitzy and glamorous, the film reveled in its tale of excess and basked in its moving and heartfelt connection to Asian culture. And where Crazy Rich Asians is the boisterous gateway for better Asian representation in Hollywood through its thoughtful meditations on East vs. West and young vs. old, Aneesh Chaganty’s Searching is the quiet ideal. A small-scale genre thriller led by the charismatic John Cho, Asian identity and race are never mentioned or brought to attention once in its 102-minute runtime, but Searching sends a message on the current state of minorities in Hollywood just as loudly and poignantly as Crazy Rich Asians. Searching’s Asian cast, unlike Crazy Rich Asians, is completely interchangeable with a white cast - you could replace all the Asian actors with white actors, and literally nothing about the plot or story would change. This is what makes the film so special when it comes to representation - when the lead role could have gone to any actor of any race, Chaganty pushed for the casting of John Cho (Star Trek, Columbus). He explains the importance of his decision in an interview with Variety:
“But the thing that I’m most proud of is, we just told a good story, and these characters happen to be Asian-American — they happen to be Korean American — and in doing so, I think we are hopefully moving the conversation forward in a way that says, ‘You don’t have to justify anyone’s skin color to be in a thriller, to be in an action movie, to be in a mystery.’ Let the story tell itself, and the people in it should hopefully just reflect everybody who lives in this country.”
The notion that Asians aren’t leading men material is dated and backwards, and Searching is the rare film that stars one, no questions asked, no explanation needed. Stories need people, and it’s about time Hollywood realized that Asians are people beyond the Karate masters, math geniuses, and plucky sidekicks.
What also helps in the case of Searching is the fact that it’s a good movie. Like its horror film compatriot from 2014, Unfriended, Aneesh Chaganty’s debut feature film unfolds solely on computer, laptop, and smartphone screens; and also like its predecessor, it’s a lot better than you would expect. Searching is incredibly in-tune with how we live as a technology-dependent society, and it transcends its gimmicky narrative device almost immediately. The opening minutes of the film, in which 16 or 17 years worth of home videos play on a computer screen, is reminiscent of a certain balloon-related Pixar feature, complete with tearjerker footage and a heartbreaking backstory. The film does things like this early and often, where it uses the screen-only conceit as an advantage to convey ideas, propel action, and tell jokes otherwise impossible in a traditional movie structure. A film “gimmick” is a novelty that adds little substance, but with Searching, it’s a storytelling tool that enhances all aspects of the narrative.
The film follows David Kim (John Cho, utilizing his charms to great effect), a single father raising his teenage daughter Margot (Michelle La). Doting with a dash of dad jokes, David tries to be the consummate single parent, but sometimes struggles nonetheless to connect with the high-schooler that lives under his roof. When Margot disappears and fails to show up at school and at home one day, a distraught David starts putting pieces together with some amateur detective work and realizes that he doesn’t really know his daughter at all. Canceled piano lessons, a lonely Tumblr site, and supposed “friends” that reveal they’re not all that close to Margot - all are things that set in his panic even more as he tries to locate her. Searching ratchets up the tension superbly, especially once the police get involved in the form of detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing), assigned to help locate Margot. There’s also something uniquely satisfying about David’s technology-based sleuthing, utilizing John Cho’s grounded charms effectively as he takes notes, compiles Excel spreadsheets, and FaceTimes people of interest; it sounds quite pedestrian, but his journey to the truth via screens is relatable and logical, and at times funnier than you would imagine.
Searching is a film I imagine to be mostly assembled in post-production, so the strength of its performances is crucial to its storytelling success. John Cho has always been in the periphery of a mainstream breakthrough, and his leading man magnetism isn’t always readily apparent in the supporting roles he usually finds himself in, but his recent gigs have found him in parts a little closer to the spotlight. His latest work has been quite powerful - a soulful turn as the son of a famous architect in Columbus, a curious detective in the murder mystery Gemini, and an excellent stint as a foster parent on TV’s underrated The Excorcist - all roles that have cemented a career renaissance for the 46 year-old actor. Searching continues this trend, and Cho’s everyman charisma is on full display, carrying the film when the mood is light as well as dark. Not many actors have the range to pull off a whole gradient of emotions, especially when closeups of his face take up both 80% of the screen and screentime, but Cho gives it his all the entire way through. Whether it’s his easy chemistry with his daughter, his desperate frustration with detective Vick, or his boiling anger with his brother Peter (Joseph Lee), David Kim’s plight is relatable all the way. One, however, can’t exactly say the same for Debra Messing as Rosemary Vick. Oddly robotic and a little out of place, Messing seems to be in a completely different film than the rest of the characters. An actress with impressive range, it’s strange that none of it shines through in her performance. The film also struggles somewhat with its rollercoaster third act that, while thrilling, ends up feeling just a little toothless. And for a movie that seems to emphasize the culpability of parents in letting their children isolate themselves with technology for much of the runtime, the issue kind of just gets swept under the rug in the end, instead letting the (poorly) marketed plot twist take the reins of the story.
In the end, however, Searching is perfect summer fare that transcends the trappings of its genre, thanks to an engaging performance from John Cho. Gimmicky genre films typically don’t ask a lot of the actors or their audience, but a sharp script and empathetic lead easily sets Searching apart from its peers. Aneesh Chaganty’s film is a confident debut, and while it may not have as many eyes on it as Crazy Rich Asians, it is just as momentous when it comes to representing Asians and Asian-Americans the right way in pop culture and media.
